
Class 
Book 



5, 



Copyright^?. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOBUi 



/ 

Suggestive Illustrations 



ON THE y\ 

GOSPEL OF JOHN. 



ILLUSTRATIONS FROM ALL SOURCES 

PICTURESQUE GREEK WORDS 

LIBRARY REFERENCES TO FURTHER ILLUSTRATIONS 

REFERENCES TO CELEBRATED PICTURES 



FOR THE USE OF 

PASTORS, SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHERS, LEADERS OF PRAYER- 
MEETINGS, AND THE HOME 



BY 



/ 

REV. F. N. PELOUBET, D. D. 

AUTHOR OF "SELECT NOTES " OX THE INTERNATIONAL LESSONS, SUGGESTIVE 
ILLUSTRATIONS ON MATTHEW, ACTS, ETC. 




^r^ 



NEW YORK 
E. R. HERRICK & COMPANY, 

PUBLISHERS. 



tN 



23149 






Copyright, 1898, 
By E. R. HERRICK & COMPANY. 

All Bights Reserved. 



Weed-parsons printing compa n Vr* 
Printers and electrotypers 
albany, n. y. 




LC 



Control 



Number 




tmp96 



0316 51 



*\ n *> & v 



PREFACE. 

For twenty-five years I have prepared an annual volume of Select 
Notes on the International Sunday-School lessons. But as Paul died 
daily, so I die yearly ; aud it has been the dream and hope of my later 
life to fill out the omitted chapters and verses, improve and revise the 
past work up to date, and make a permanent commentary on the New 
Testament. The plan is to bring the latest, the most scholarly and the 
best light upon the Bible, in a condensed and practical form, into the 
pulpit, the Sunday-school and the home. I have been encouraged to 
hope that this work would not be useless from the fact that the total 
sale of the select notes approaches a million copies. 

On consulting, however, with booksellers and publishers, the opinion 
was almost unanimous that such a commentary must not be too large. 
This necessitates the leaving out of the illustrations, which many testify 
to as especially helpful in my previous volumes. It was therefore 
decided to publish the illustrations in separate volumes, of which this 
volume is the third one issued. It is thus possible to furnish a greatly 
increased number of illustrations, and literary references, which have 
been selected with care from a large and growing accumulation. 

In the preface to a new department in the Biblical World, " Material 
from English Literature Illustrative of the International Sunday-School 
Lessons," it was excellently said that "it is always a stimulating and 
liberalizing influence to discover how life itself, or any theory about 
life, has presented itself to men and women of large intelligence and 
deep emotional experience. Their embodiment of any theme gives us 
first the facts of life as seen by an expert in the study of man, and also 
the theory by which he interprets these facts and traces them to an 
issue. As we follow a single thought from mind to mind, it gains color, 
point, definiteness ; it becomes rich, human, alive. We have not in this 
process forsaken the Bible for literature. The Bible has simply gone 
out through literature and found its own. What the Bible has itself 
inspired is used to bring home to men what the Bible directly teaches." 
The same principle is equally true of the " chambers of imagery " in 
Nature. The wise Milton asks,— 

''What if Earth 
Be but the shadow of heaven, and things therein 
Each to the other like, more than on earth is thought." 



IV 



PREFACE 



In these volumes there is a sincere endeavor to open some of the doors 
to these ' 'chambers of imagery," and to remind our readers of some of the 
treasures of literature bearing on the themes concerning which the 
apostle John has written ; and in both cases to suggest more than is 
told, to be an " open sesame" to the uncounted treasures in these fields. 

AUBURNDALE, MASS., 

September, 1898. 



CHAPTER TITLES 



^Chapters. JOHN. Titles.\^ 


1 


the Incarnation. 


£ 


Cana, the Miracle in the Home. 


1 


The New Heart. Nicodemus. 


4 


The Water of Life. 


1 


The Bethesda Cure. 


6 

1 — 


The Bread of Life. 


1 


The Feast of Tabernacles. 


1 


Freedom by the Truth. 


1 


Christ the Light of the World. 


^° 


Christ the Good Shepherd, 


5 


The Lazarus Chapter. 


The Bethany Chapter. 


J3 
j5 


The Lords Supper. 


The Comforter. 


The Vine and its Branches. 


Jl 


The Spirit of Truth and Peace. 


*L 


The Lord's Prayer. 


18 


The Trial. 


Ji 


Crucifixion. 


20 


Resurrection. 


1 


Lovest thou Me. 



Life of 
John. 


Life of Christ. 




Spring 


Birth of John the Baptist. Jurje, b. 05 




Birth op Christ. Dec., b. 05 




Childhood and Youth. 


B. c 4 to 

A. d. 26. 


w 

C 

.2 

P. 




Ministry of John. a. d. 26. 




A. D. 


Baptism of Jesus. 1 Jan. 


<u 




26. 

a 


The Temptation. Ja- d. 27. 


0, 




1 


A. D. 






|S 


Year of Beginnings. 


27 






>-> 


First DisciplesV 


Feb 


i* 




£ 


First Miracle. 


„ 








First Reform. 


Apr. 


■53 






First Discourse. 






Idem 
cMi 


First Tour. 

First Samaritan Disciple- 
First Work of Galilean Mm 


Sum- 
mer 
Dec. 






M 


j J 




P. 


istry. 


.» 


) 




II. 


A.D, 






Year of Development. 


23 






Mch. 






) 






Early work in Galilee. 


Apr. 


£ ' 




• ; < 


Miracles of Power. 








§ 16 


Choice of the Apostles. 


Sum- 






% » ? < 


/i Sermon on the Mount. 
/ Miracles of Help. 


mer. 


) •* 




In Pn 
t Mac! 

'PI'. ' • 


. ( 


s 




/ Parables. 


Aut- 






f Miracles of Faith. 


umn. 


2 




Ml 






s 
1 2 > 




III. 






Death./ 


Year of Teaching 




\s\ 




Mch. / 


and Working. 


39 






Death of John the Baptist. 


Mch. 


I 5 








Sum- 












1 ( 




/ '+* 


The Transfiguration. 


Aut- 






/ 


Growing Opposition. 
Jesus and the Children. 


umn. 


( 




/ 0. 




{ ' 




/ O 


John, chaps. 7-10. 




! I< 




/ « 


Final Departure from 


Nov. 




/ 1 


Galilee. 


1 






/ * 


The Good Samaritan. 
Teachings about Prayer. 








/ ? 


Dec. 






/ 


Parables about Watching. 
The Prodigal Son. 




%5 






Last Three Months. 


A. D. 

30 






Raising of Lazarus. 


Jan. 


tc a 






On the way to 
Jerusalem. 


Feb. 


«'5 

&,2 






Parables. 


Hch. 








Supper at Bethany. 


Ap. 1 








Triumphal entry. 


Ap.2 








Cleansing of temple. 


Ap. 3 








Last Great day of Teach- 


1 








ing in Temple. 


A-P- 4| 


« 






Rest at Bethany. 


A.P-5. 


£ 






Lord's Supper. 


Ap. 61 


p> 






Gethsemane 




■j 






Trial, 


Ap.7 




s 






Crucifixion. 


" 






Resurrection. 


Ap.g! 








Ascension. 


VIyi8 


- 





M 



John*, 




ST. JOHN. 



Pictures and Ancient Emblems. — "As one of the series of Apostles, 
St. John is always, in Western Art, young or in the prime of life ; with 
little or no beard, flowing or curling hair, generally of a pale brown 
or golden hue, to express the delicacy of his nature, and in his counte- 
nance an expression of benignity and candor." — Mrs. Jamieson. 

Putting together the various symbols of his office as represented in 
art, sometimes separately and sometimes combined in one figure, we 
note that (1) as an apostle his symbol is the sacramental cup in his hands ; 
(2) as an Evangelist he is accompanied by an eagle ; (3) as a prophet 
he holds a book often with a pen. 

1. From the Sacramental cup in the hand of John, a serpent is seen 
to issue, probably an allusion to the reply given by our Saviour when 
the mother of James and John requested for her sons the place of honor 
in the Kingdom of heaven, " ye shall indeed drink of my cup." 

2. Tlie book or scroll, represents John as a prophet. Domenichino 
represents him as young and beautiful, in an ecstacy of inspiration, 
with " a scroll in his hand, looking upwards as one to whom the glory 
of the heavens had been opened ; you see it reflected in his eyes, while 
love, wonder, devotion, beam from his beautiful face and parted lips ; 
behind him hovers the attendant eagle, holding the pen in his beak." 

3. Tlie eagle represents him as the Evangelist, " The early images of 
the Evangelical symbol are uniformly represented with wings for the 
same reason that wings were given to the angels, — they w^ere angels, 
i. e., bringers of good tidings." The Evangelist flew on swift wings of 
love over the world. But first the eagle soared highest into the heavens 
and his eyes gazed at the Sun of righteousness, looking into the face of 
the Holy One. 

1 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 



" Supra Coelos dum conscendit 
Summi Patris comprehendit 

Natum ante Ssecula; 
Pellens nobem nostrse molis 
Intuetur jubar solis 

Johannes in aquila." 
Latin Hymn of Adam of St. Victor, 
in Abp. Trench' 8 Latin Hymns. 



" See, far above the starry height, 
Beholding, with unclouded sight, 

The brightness of the sun, 
John doth as eagle swift appear, 
Still gazing on the vision clear 
Of Christ, the Eternal Son." 
Translated by E. LI. Plumptre, L>. D. 



Legends of St. John. — " It is related by Clement of Alexandria 
that when St. John was at Ephesus, and before he was exiled to Pat- 
mos, he had taken to his care a young man of promising qualities of 
person and mind. During his absence he left him under the spiritual 
guidance of a certain bishop : but, after a while, the youth 
took to evil courses, and proceeding from one excess to St. John 
another, he at length became the leader of a band of rob- and the 
bers and assassins, who struck terror into the whole coun- Robbers, 
try. When St. John returned to Ephesus, he went to the 
bishop and demanded ' the precious deposit he had left in his hands.' 
At first the priest did not understand him ; but when St. John 
explained the allusion to his adopted son, he cast down his eyes with 
sorrow and shame, and told of what had befallen. Then St. John rent 
his garments and wept with a loud voice, and cried out, ' Alas ! alas ! 
to what a guardian have I trusted our brother ! ' And he called for a 
horse and rode towards the forest in which the robbers sojourned, and 
when the captain of the robbers beheld his old master and instructor, 
lie turned and would have fled from his presence, but St. John bj 7 the 
most fervent entreaties, prevailed on him to stop and listen to his words 
After some conference, the robber, utterly subdued, burst into tears of 
penitence, imploring forgiveness ; and while he spoke, he hid beneath 
his robe his right hand, which had been sullied with so many crimes ; 
but St. John, falling on his knees before him, seized that blood-polluted 
hand and kissed it. and bathed it with his tears ; and he remained with 
his re-converted brother till he had, by prayers and encouraging words 
and affectionate exhortations, reconciled him with Heaven and with 
himself. 

" This beautiful legend is the subject of some old engravings, in which 
St. John is represented embracing the robber, who is weeping on his 
neck, having flung away his weapons. It has been, however, too rarely 
treated ; I have never met with a picture of the subject ; and yet it 
abounds in picturesque capabilities: the forest background — the con- 
trast of youth and age— bright armor, flowing drapery, and the most 
striking and affecting moral, are here all combined." — Mrs. Jamivs'cin, 



ST. JOHN 3 

An Apologue of St. John. — " Another very pretty apologue relat- 
ing to St. John is sometimes included in a series of subjects from his 
lips Two young men who had sold all their possessions to follow him, 
afterwards repented. He, perceiving their thoughts, sent 
them to gather pebbles and faggots, and on their return, St. John 
changed these into money and ingots of gold, saying to and Two 
them, * Take back your riches and enjoy them on earth, as Young Men. 
you regret having exchanged them for heaven ! ' This story 
is represented on one of the windows of the Cathedral at Bourges. 
The two young men stand before St John with a heap of gold on one 
side, and a heap of stones and faggots on the other." — Mrs. Jamieson. 

Library. — Mrs Jamison's Sacred and Legendary Art, Vol. I, pp. 
157-172. 

Pictures. — Darer's St. John and St. Peter (Munich) St. John, by 
Domenichino, (several pictures, one at Leigh Court, one at St. Peters- 
burgh, one at Milan) ; by Raphael, (Marseilles) ; by Correggio, (Duomo 
at Parma) ; by Perugino (Bologna). 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS I : I~5 



CHAPTER I. 

THE INCARNATION. 



THE LOGOS AND GOD. 

1. Iu the beginning was the Word, 'Ev apxi) fy 6 Ao-yos, 

And the Word was with God, Ktt \, 6 Ao-yos r\v irpos t6v 0e6v, 

And the Word was God. Kal €6s - v ^ Ao^os. 

2. The same was in the beginning: /-*? ? . - > > /~v , 

a, xuc aai^c aa & rt OutoS T1V €V ttpXTl TTpOS TOV 0€OV. 

with God. 

THE LOGOS AND THE WORLD. 

3. All things were made by him; IldvTa 81' avTov 1-ye'vcTO, 

And without him was not any thing Kal x w P l S avToii l-ye'vcTO ov8c €v o 

made that was made. \e\ovtv. 

THE LOGOS AND MANKIND. 

4. In him was life ; . 'Ev avru £<dt] rjv, 

And the life was the light of men. Ka \ ^ j^ fy T £ fy& s T £ v dvGpwirwv. 

THE LOGOS AND SIN. 

5. Aud the light shineth in darkness; Kal to 4>"S €v tq o-kotio. ^tatvei, 
And the darkness comprehended Ka \ ^ o- K oTia auro ov KareXapcv. 

it not. 



The Word, (6 \6-yos) : Logos. " This expression is the key-note and 
theme of the entire gospel. A6-yos is from the root Key, appearing in 
\iyco, the primitive meaning of which is to lay: then, to pick out, 
gather, pick up : hence to gather or put words together, and so, to speak. 
Hence Xo-yos is, first of all, a collecting or collection both of tilings in the 
mind, and of words by which they are expressed. It therefore signifies 
both the outward form by which the inward thought is expressed, and 
the inward thought itself, the Latin oratio and ratio: compare the 
Italian ragionare, ' to think,' and ; to speak.'" — Prof. M. li. Vincent, 

Word Studies. 

WORD has the double meaning of thought and speech, the inner reality 
expressed in outward form. 

Illustrated by the Dispersion op Light. — No one can look 
steadily at the sun without being blinded; and to one looking in any- 
other direct ion the sun would be invisible, were it not for the particles 
<»f matter in the air. each of which, in the sun's rays, becomes a minia- 
ture sun, revealing the very nature of the sun, its light, and heat and 



I: 1-5 



ST. JOHN 



chemical powers, its infinite variety of colors. It is <fr 
by matter that the sun's nature is revealed. This fact 
ib an emblem of the Word, incarnated in Jesus Christ, 
revealing to us the invisible God " whom no man can 
see and live." "The only begotten Son ... He hath 
declared Him." 



Prologue. 
The Word. 



The Word was with God. — The Greek word for with, irpos, origi- 
nally denotes motion towards, and hence with, as the result of the 
motion ; "and that not merely as being near or beside, but as a living 
union and communion." "Thus John's statement is that the divine 
Word not only abode with the Father from all eternity, but was in the 
living, active relation of communion with Him." — M. R. Vincent, 

Word Studies. 

The Word. 

The Word of God, the Eternal Son, 
With God, the Uncreated, One, 

Came down to earth from Heaven ; 
To see Him, handle Him, and show 
His heavenly life to men below, 

To holy John was given. 

Among those four primeval streams 
Whose living fount in Eden gleams, 

John's record true is known; 
To all the werld he poureth forth 
The nectar pure of priceless worth 

That flows from out the Throne. 



Verbum Dei, Deo Natum, 
Quod nee factum, nee creatum, 

Venit de ccelestibus; 
Hoc vidit, hoc attrectavit, 
Hoc de coelo reseravit, 

Joannes hominibus. 



Inter illos primitivos 
Veros veri fontis rivos 

Joannes exiliit; 
Toti mundo propinare 
Nectar illud salutare, 

Quod de throno prodiit. 

Ccelum transit, veri rotam, 
Solis vidit, ibi totam 

Mentis tigens aciem ; 
Speculator spiritalis, 
Quasi Seraphim sub alis, 

Dei vidit faciem. 

Audiitin gyro sedis 

Quid psallant cum citharsedis, 

Quater seni proceres: 
De Sigillo Trinitatis 
Nostra? nummo civitatis 

Impressit characteres. 

Volat avis sine meta 

Quo nee vates necpropheta 

Evolavit altius : 
Tarn implenda quam impleta, 
Nunquam vidit tot secreta 

Purus homo purius. 



Beyond the Heavens he soared, nor failed, 
With all the spirit's gaze unveiled, 

To see our true Sun's grace; 
Not as through mists and visions dim, 
Beneath the wings of Seraphim, 

He looked, and saw God's face. 

He heard where songs and harps resound, 
And four and twenty elders round 

Sing hymns of praise and joy ; 
The impress of the One in Three, 
With print so clear that all may see, 

He stamped on earth's alloy. 

As eagle winging loftiest flight 
Where never seer's or prophet's sight 

Had pierced the ethereal vast, 
Pure beyond human purity, 
He scanned, with still undazzled eye, 

The future and the past. 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 



I: 1-5 



Sponsus, rubra veste tectus, 
Visus, sed uon intellectus, 

Redit ad palatium ; 
Aquilam Ezechieiis 
Sponsse misit, qme de coelis 

Referret mysterium. 

Die, dilecte, de Dilecto, 
Qualis, adsit, et de lecto 

Sponsi Sponsas nuncia; 
Die quis cibus angelorum, 
Qiue sint festa superornm 

De Sponsi praesentia. 

Veri panem intellectus, 
Cienam Christi super pectus, 

Chiisti suraptara resera: 
Ut cantemus de Patrono, 
Coram Agna, coram Throne, 

Laudes super aethera. 



The bridegroom, clad in garments red, 
Seen, yet with might unfathomed, 

Home to his palace hies; 
Ezekiel's eagle to His bride 
He sends, and will no longer hide 

Heaven's deepest mysteries. 

loved one, bear, if thou cau'st tell 
Of Him whom thou did'st love so well, 

Glad tidings to the Bride; 
Tell of the angels' food they taste, 
Who with the Bridegroom's presence graced, 

Are resting at His side. 

Tell of the soul's true bread unpriced, 
Christ's supper, on the breast of Christ 

In wondrous rapture ta'en ; 
That we may sing before the Throne 
His praises, whom as Lord we own, 

The Lamb we worship slain. 



Anonymous. Found in Alp. Trencli 's Sacred Latin Poetry. Translated by Prof. 
E. II. Plumptre, D. D. 



"Geschrieben steht: ' Im Anfang war 

das Wort ! ' 
Hier stock' ich schou ! Wer hilft mir 

weiter fort ? 
Ich kann das Wort so hoch uumoglich 

schatzen 
Ich muss es anders iibersetzen 
Wenn ich vom Geiste recht erleuchtet 

bin. 
Geschrieben steht; ' Im Anfang war 

der Sinn' 
Bedunke wohl die erste Zeile 
Dass Deine Feder sich nicht iibereile, 
1st es der Sinn, der Alles wirkt und 

schafft? 
Es sollte stchn: ' Im Anfang war die 

Kraft!' 
Doch, auch indem ich dieses nieder- 

schreibe 
Schon warut mich was, dass ich dabei 

nicht bleibe, 
Mir hilft dor Geist ! Auf ein mal seh'ich 

Rath 
Und Scbreibe getrost : ' Im Anfang war 

die That.' " 



"'Tis written; 'In the beginning was 

the Word,' 
Here am I balked; who now cau help 

afford ? 
The Word? — impossible so high to 

rate it; 
And otherwise must I translate it, 
If by the Spirit I am truly taught. 
Then thus; 'Iu the beginning was the 

Thought,' 
This first line let me weigh completely, 
Lest my impatient pen proceed too 

fleetly. 
Is it the Thought which works, creates, 

indeed? 
'In the beginning was the Power,'' I 

read. 
Yet, as I write, a warning is suggested 
That I the sense may not have fairly 

toted. 
The Spirit aids me; now I see the light! 
' In the beginning was tlie Act,' I write." 

— Goethe' 8 Faust, Translated by Bayard 
Taylor. 



I : 1-5 ST. JOHN 



Prologue. 
The Word. 

* * 



And the Word was God. — Holding the Unity of 
God, here expressed, as firnily and absolutely as any 
Unitarian possibly can, we must also hold that there 
is a distinction in the God -head. In some sense the 
Son is distinct from the Father, while he is yet God. 

This Seeming Contradiction has its parallels in Natural Science. 
In one of his Lowell lectures, Prof. G. Frederick Wright spoke of the 
Paradoxes of Science. He is reported as saying : " It is a mistake to 
suppose that the conclusions of modern physical science are free from 
difficulties and clear of all doubt. In fact, instead of freeing us from 
mysteries, science is leading us deeper and deeper into them, and sub- 
stituting, in place of single mysteries, an ever increasing multitude for 
each one. 

"1. The Newtonian theory of gravitation involves paradoxes which 
nobody has been able to explain ; for, if bodies act upon each other at a 
distance without any intervening medium, then a thing can act where 
it is not, which is an absurdity. On the other hand, if there is a mate- 
rial medium rilling all space, and gravity is transmitted through that, 
by a push rather than by a pull, then the transmission ought to occupy 
some appreciable time. But this it does not do. At any rate, if its 
action is not absolutely instantaneous, its velocity must be at least 
60,000,000 times greater than that of light. Moreover, every effort to 
represent gravitation as the result of a push from behind lands one in 
absurdities of various kinds. 

" 2. The atomic constitution of matter maintained by modern scien- 
tists is equally beyond our comprehension and paradoxical. If matter 
is not infinitely divisible, but, as Newton supposed, consists 
of ultimate atoms which are inelastic and perfectly hard, Paradoxes 
then there is no escape from the conclusion that in their of Science, 
collision with one another, there would be loss of motion 
and a dissipation of energy. But nothing is more certain than that the 
energy in a confined body of gas is constant, and not subject to dissi- 
pation. To meet this difficulty, Sir William Thomson and others try 
to imagine an atom which is infinitely elastic, which is but another form 
of assuming the infinite divisibility of matter, and of trying to get the 
phenomenon of hardness out of a collocation of particles which have 
no hardness. In short, of making something out of nothing. 

" 3. The mystery of life is, if possible, still more perplexing." — Prof. 
G. F. Wright. 

It is not strange, then, that there are mysteries in spiritual things. We 
believe them on evidence in spite of the mystery, just as we believe in 
gravitation and atoms and life, on evidence, although we cannot solve 
all their mysteries. 



8 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS I : I~5 

The Trinity. — While there is no perfect illustration of the Trinity, 
yet since we are made in the image of God, our own souls 
would naturally give us the best idea, and make certain its Every Man 
possibility. " a Trinity. 

Each of us is one kind of " three in one." Each soul is a 
unit, yet it consists of intellect and sensibilities and will. And every 
difficulty in understanding the divine Trinity is found in this lesser 
trinity, which we know to be a fact. So that while this does not 
explain the Trinity, nor solve the mystery, it proves that there need be 
no necessary contradiction. 

A Physical Trinity, Light. —Prof. Lewis Wright concludes his 
excellent volume on Light, by a chapter on light as "a physical 
trinity." 

1. The Ether. — Scientists "tell us of an intangible, invisible Ether, 
which cannot be touched or tasted or contained or measured, or 
weighed, but yet is everywhere ; which contains within itself the most 
essential properties of Matter, fluid and solid ; and which yet is not 
Matter, though it can communicate its own motions to Matter." " He 
believes in this Ether which he has never seen, and never will see, 
because without it he can explain no solitary phenomenon around him, 
while with it and its motions he can explain everything." 

God the Father. — "The Christian believes in an eternal, immortal, 
invisible, inconceivable, infinite Essence, the one Source and Father of 
all." 

2. Union With Matter. — "The Ether is invisible, inconceivable, 
unknown to us, unless Matter, to make it visible, be in its path." " In 
this form it can be limited, and contained, and measured and weighed." 
"In it the Ether may become, as it were, incarnated." 

The Word Made Flesh.— The Christian believes that the first essential 
Being has in a mysterious way become embodied in a Second, who is 
the brightness of His glory and the visible Image of His person. 

3. Energy, " a motion in the Ether," "a mysterious energy which 
also takes protean forms, but which in one form or other is doing all the 
physical work of the universe." 

The Holy Spirit. — This Christian believes that the first two " work or 
act by and through a third mysterious Energy whose operations assume 
many forms, who does all things, alike in matter and spirit." 

" Light embodies them all." " There are these three, and these only ; 
each distinct and separate ; and yet the three making up One, a 
mysterious unity which cannot be dissolved." 

Library. —Chap 18 of Prof. Lewis Wright's Light. (Macmillan). 






I : 1-5 ST. JOHN 



Prologue. 
The Word. 



Knowledge of God. — "When you say, 'I cannot 
know what passeth knowledge,' you say what is not 
correct. The eye knows the sun, but the sun passes 
the knowledge of the eye, and the eye, by a fullness 
of light, can never make a day. but the eye may be so 
filled with the fullness of the sun that the whole body shall be full of 
light. And so the sailor knows the sea, but the sea passes his knowl- 
edge ; and the botanist knows the plants, but the plants pass his 
knowledge ; and every baptized child of God, upon whom has come 
the Spirit of the Saviour, knows the love of Christ, but the love of 
Christ passes his knowledge — passes all knowledge." — Rev. William 
Arthur. 



Mysteries in Religion and in Nature. — " And yet these men find 
fault because we cannot explain what the Trinity is. Begin in the 
primary school. When a scientific man will tell me what life is, I will 
tell him what the Trinity is. Let us begin with the alphabet and work 
our way up grade. When a man will tell me how a star is made, I will 
tell him how God was incarnated in Jesus Christ. Begin with the 
simple things, like the stars, that you know all about. We live in 
mystery. Take that greater truth of God Himself. How shall we 
know God ? ' No man hath seen God at any time,' nor can see Him. 
' The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath 
declared Him.' We look upon Christ, and we see God. Do we know 
Him? God forbid. We might well go home in tears if we felt 
that these minds of ours were large enough to surround the Almighty 
and the Eternal, as man knows his classmate. Job was right when he 
said of the great nature which some men call God, but which the Bible 
never calls God : 'These are but the outskirts of His ways ' — the train 
of His robe — and ' how small a whisper do we hear of Him.' "— Alex- 
ander McKenzie, D. D., in Northfield Echoes, 1897. 



3. All Things were Made by Him. — All nature is doubly interest- 
ing and profitable because it is the work of our loved Redeemer, and 
therefore reveals to us His mind and heart. Hence it is ever illustrating 
divine truths, and we can find books in the running brooks, " sermons 
in stones, and good in everything." Hence 

" Earth's crammed with heaven 
And every common bush afire with God." 
Hence also, 

" The flowers are the alphabet of angels, whereby 
They write on hills and fields mysterious truths." 



10 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS I : 4 

4. In him was life ; and the life was the light of men. 

4. Life, Zwt], (Zoe) existence, in distinction from Bios, the period or 
manner of existence, the course of life. Hence Zoology is used of 
animals, but .Biography of men. "In the New Testament, Z<ai\ is the 
nobler word," expressing " the sum of mortal and eternal blessedness.'* 
Hence Life (Zwtj) in this verse includes every degree of life from the 
existence of the lowest animals to the noblest life in heaven. 

Reference. — See under "Whatever crazy sorrow saith." V : 21. 



The Tree Igdrasil. —In the Norse myths "all Life is figured as a 
tree. Igdrasil, the Ash tree of Existence, has its roots deep down in 
the Kingdoms of Hela, or Death ; its trunk reaches up heaven-high, 
spreads its boughs over the whole Universe. Its boughs with their 
buddings and disleafings, — events, things suffered, things done, catas- 
trophes, — stretch through all lands and all times. Is not every leaf of 
it a biography, every fibre there an act or word ? Its boughs are the 
Histories of Nations. The rustle of it is the noise of Human Existence, 
onwards from of old. It grows there, the breath of Human Passion 
rustling through it, or storm tossed, the storm wind howling through it 
like the voice of all the Gods. It is Igdrasil, the Tree of Existence. It 
is the Past, the Present, and the Future ; what was done, what is doing, 
what will be done ; the infinite conjugation of the verb to do." — Car- 
lyle. Heroes and Hero Worship. Lect. 1. 



A Legend of the Rabbis tells us of a branch of the Tree of Life 
that was planted on Adam's grave, and Christian fancy has traced to 
the wood which that branch produced, the cross on Calvary. — Jacox, 
Sidelights. 

Spontaneous Generation. — It is interesting to note that sponta- 
neous generation is given up by all leading scientific scholars. Only 
life can produce life. In the first chapters of Genesis the word create 
(whose meaning is shown by ver. 3 of this chapter to be cause to come into 
being) is used three times, — of matter, of life, of the soul of man. 
And at each of these points the efforts of men to produce life by the 
forces of nature have proved a complete failure. This is especially true 
of spiritual life in the soul. 

And the Life was the Light of Men. — Light is a form of motion 
and is therefore the result of Life. According to Genesis and Science, 
the first result of a life movement, some brooding energy of spirit upon 
chaos, was Light. 



I : 5 ST. JOHN 1 1 



5. And the light shineth in darkness ; and the darkness 
comprehended it not. 



Prologue. 

Life and 
Light. 



So in the soul, there is first life, then light. Dead 
eyes cannot see, dead souls cannot know. The very "*" "*" 

first thing that makes light a reality is life. All the light of heaven 
concentrated upon an eye, will not give it light unless it is a living eye. 
But give physical life, and you can give physical light ; give mental life 
and you give mental light ; give spiritual life and you can give spiritual 
light, 

The Light of Men. — Light is mysterious in nature, ineffably bright 
and glorious, everywhere present, swift- winged, undefiled, and unde- 
niable. Light is the source of life, of beauty, of manifested reality, of 
warmth, comfort and joy, of health and of power. It destroys all 
darkness ; it unites in itself purity and clearness. Without it the world 
would be but a mass of coldness and death. Now, what light does for 
the natural world, Jesus does for the world of man, for mind, soul and 
spirit. He reveals God and heaven, and truth ; He shows the way ; He 
cheers, comforts, vivifies, renews. 



Jesus was the Light.— " The light— Ether, is invisible, inconceivable, 
unknown to us, unless matter to make it visible be in its path." — Prof. 
Lewis Wright. Matter in some form is everywhere present in our 
atmosphere. Close examination of the air on the top of one 
of the snow-covered Rocky Mountains, showed that there Dispersion 
were in each cubic inch of that purest of air, from 400 up to of Light. 
200,000 particles. Without this matter we could see only 
the sun, and that would blind us. In all other directions would be only 
absolute darkness. But by the dispersion of light from the particles in 
the atmosphere, each particle becomes a miniature sun, and the world 
is full of light. 

5. And the Light Shineth in Darkness. — Aristotle, in one of his 
works, fancies the feelings of one who, having lived in 
darkness all his life, should for the first time behold the Aristotle's 
rising of the snn. He might have had some idea of the Fancy, See- 
world from the light of candles or of moon and stars ; but ing the 
when the sun rose, what new glories would burst on his Light for 
vision ! how much more beautiful, more perfect, far-reach- the First 
ing than he could have conceived ! The dangers, too, would Time, 
be shown in clearer light, as well as the safe roads. Like 
this was the coming of Christ to the world, "a day spring from on 
high." Like this is the receiving of Christ into our souls. 



12 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS I: J 

What the Sunlight Does. — Science, by its doctrine of " the cor- 
relation of forces," has shown that the sun is the source of nearly all 
the forces and movements on the earth. The flow of the rivers is from 
the sun, whose rays lifted their waters from the ocean, and bore them 
on "the cloud chariots," by the winds which its heat produces, to the 
mountains, whence they flow. The mines of coal are stored sunshine. 
The sun awakens life in trees and plants. As all these forces find their 
ultimate source in the sun, so all life and light, natural, intellectual, 
spiritual, finds its source in the Word who is God. 

Library. — Prof. Tyndall's Heat as a Mode of Motion. Prof. Henry 
Drummond's Natural Law in the Spiritual World. 

Light in the Darkness. — The same truth may be illustrated by the 
children of those sent by the Russian government to the 
mines of Siberia, and who, once entering the depths, never Children 
again come up to the light. Children are born in those Born in 
mines, and live for years, knowing no larger or brighter the Mines, 
world than those torch-lit mines. Christ coming into our 
souls is like the bringing one of these children out of his damp, dark, 
narrow mine, into the fresh air and bright sun and beautiful fields and 
wide landscape of the upper world. 



Picture, The Repose in Egypt. — There is a modern but famous 
French picture, called "The Repose in Egypt," engravings of which 
have found their way into our art stores. It represents a sphinx with 
upturned face, as if still asking the great question of life ; and appro- 
priately standing on the edge of the African desert, to represent the 
desert state of the world, without God and immortality. Darkness 
broods over the scene, with only the far-off stars of tradition and 
philosophy shedding their dim light upon the dark desert of life. The 
artist represents Mary, with the child Jesus, in their flight from Herod, 
as reposing between the arms of the spinx, with Joseph, and the ass 
near by on an oasis. The light of the picture flows from the child 
Jesus, and makes bright the oasis and the nearer sands ; and rays from 
his face stretch far away over the barren wastes, and penetrate through 
the darkness. So indeed does Jesus shine upon this dark world of sin 
and sickness and death. 



Light of Christ, and the Light of Nature. — In India a party of 
missionaries were travelling, and at night, being without 
lights, and unable to read the Word before retiring, they The 
put a glow worm on the page, and read line by line as the Glow Worm's 
worm crawled toward the bottom of the page. So dimly Lamp. 



i:5 



ST. JOHN 



13 



shines the light of Nature upon the book of our lives, »!■- 
compared with the sunlight with which Christ illu- 
mines its pages. 



Prologue. 

Light 
Shining in 

Darkness. 



Axd the Darkness Comprehended it Not. — ov 
KaTeXajky, ". did not lay hold of so as to make one's 
own ; did not take into itself so as to appropriate it, hence did not 
understand or comprehend it. — Thayer. 



Seeing and Hearing. — Certain facts concerning the difference 
between seeing and hearing, illustrate this statement. "I see yonder 
organ, but I cannot see the music from the organ. The ear hears that. 
So the critical understanding discovers and confirms the reality of cer- 
tain facts, while the spiritual nature hears the spiritual music or mes- 
sage of these facts. Vision is necessary first to prove that what we are 
hearing is a real instrument and not a mere roaring in our own ears, a 
subjective affair. So the intellect, like the eye, must first verify the 
instrument, but the eye cannot see the sound." — Rev. A. J. Lyman, D.D. 
So the light may come into the intellect, and yet the spirit not compre- 
hend its meaning. 



Living in the Basement of the Soul. — " If we supposed a man 
possessed of a magnificent house, luxuriously and tastefully furnished, 
who yet chooses never to ascend a stair, and lives in the basement, 
shabbily and meanly, with the coarsest appliances of physical comfort, 
we might take him as a type of not a few bad men, who seem entirely 
at their ease. They live in the basement. They have thrown away the 
key to the upper rooms. They have lost all appreciation of the higher, 
better modes of human living, and they are contented and satisfied, as 
a well fed beast is, in the absence of all spiritual cravings and ambi- 
tions." Gradually " the body becomes the soul's dungeon, and its walls 
thicken inward, and close up the wonted entrances of enjoyment. The 
senses, deadened on the side of pleasure, no longer avenues of beauty or 
of harmony, seem to serve only as a means of prolonging a death in life, 
and as open inlets of discomfort and pain." — Dr. A. P. Peabody in 
Introduction to Plutarch on the Delay of the Divine Justice, pp. 27, 28. 



Not Comprehending the Light. — "A dying, despairing man, 
addressing one under whose ministry he had sat for twenty 
years, said, ' I have never heard a single sermon ! ' The A Constant 
minister, who had known him for years as a constant hearer, Hearer 
looked astonished, fancied that he was raving. But not who Never 
SO. The man was in his sad and sober senses, ' I attended Heard. 



14 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS I : 5 

church,' he explained, 'but my habit was, so soon as you began 
the sermon, to begin a review of last week's trade, and to antici- 
pate and arrange the business of the next.'" — London Sunday- School 
Chronicle. 



Another Interpretation is given in the margin of the R. V. " The 
darkness overcame it not." The darkness did not eclipse the light, as 
the moon sometimes eclipses the sun. 

" The light, though sometimes apparently overcome, was really victo- 
rious ; it withstood every assault, and shone on triumphantly in a dark- 
ened world. So far, therefore, from our finding here a ' wail ' (as some 
have said) we have a note of exultation, a token of that victory which 
throughout the whole Gospel rises to our view through sorrow." — 
Revision Com. 

So in the " Drama of Creation," from the very beginning light enters 
on its long struggle with darkness, changing chaos into a perfect world, 
and the struggle has not ended, nor light finished its work ; but the 
darkness has never overcome it. The keynote thus struck is sounded 
by poets, by prophets, by apostles, by heroes all down the ages. No 
reader of the Bible requires to have it proved for him that the triumph 
of light is the note that breathes most fully and most sweetly in all its 
varied music." — James Sime in The Drama of Citation, Expositor for 
October and November, 1397. 



One Boy's Experience. — "At one time in my church there was one 
colored boy as a Sunday-school scholar. The five other boys in the class 
were white, and they asked their teacher, who was a lady, to dismiss 
the African. Although he was a great annoyance, being full of mis- 
chief and very ignorant indeed, and coming of a very bad family, his 
teacher hesitated, saying to the others, ' What will become of the poor 
fellow if we cast him adrift ? ' There came a great awakening upon the 
church ; many were converted to God. At an experience meeting one 
Sunday afternoon the African arose, and said, 'I can give my experi- 
ence to you.' He had in his hand a book, which he began to read, while 
the people listened : ' In the beginning God created the heaven and the 
earth. And the earth was without form, and void ; and darkness was 
upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face 
of the waters. And God said, Let there be light : and there was light. 
That is it ; that is my experience.' He said no more, but closed the 
book and sat down. Not the most cultivated soul could have better told 
the wonderful story of regeneration."— Christian Work. 



I : 6-9 ST. JOHN 1 5 



r There was a man sent from God, whose name taas John. 

7. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the 
Light, that all men through him might believe. 

S. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that 
Light. 

9. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that 
comethinto the world. 



Prolog-ue- 

John 

Bearing 

AYitness to 

the Light. 



7. The Same Came for a Witness. — " The word ' witness ' occurs 47 
times, and the word 'believe' 98 times. The whole book of John is 
developed according to that ilea."' — Pres. W. W. White. 



The Xeed of Witness — The light being spiritual, and men being 
absorbed in worldly things, and dwelling in moral cellars and caves 
instead of the open air, and Jesus coming in an humble, unobtrusive 
manner, multitudes would fail to see the light. They would be like 
"the owlet Atheism" described by Coleridge (xii : 40). 

Hence it was necessary that John should call the attention of men to 
the light. 

As the morning sky reflects the rays of the sun while yet itself is 
unseen below the horizon, and bears witness that the sun is there, and 
is soon to rise and flood the world with its blessed light, and bears wit- 
ness also to the nature of that light, so John came before Jesus Christ 
to witness that He was coming, to show something of the effects of His 
coming, and to awaken people to look for Him. 



Every lamp shining, every particle of glass reflecting the sunlight, 
a witness to the sun. the source of its light. 



Preparing the Way was a Witness to the fact that some great per- 
son was coming, Thus in Egypt, when the Prince of Wales was about 
to visit that country, the preparation of the roads was a witness that he 
was coming. And to this day his name and the name of other great 
men are connected with the good roads made for their coming. 

So the preparation of the road bed witnesses to the fact that the rail- 
way and its trains are coming. 

Preparing the ground, the assembling of stones and lumber, witnesses 
to the coming building. 

Preparing the wires witnesses to the coming of the electric light, or 
cars or telegraph or telephone. 



l6 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS I : IO-13 



10. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew 
him not. 

11. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 

12. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of 
God, even to them that believe on his name ; 

13. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will 
nf man, hut of God. 

9. The True Light which Lighteth Every Man. — " Some one has 
said, suppose the sun in the heavens, which enlightens and warms and 
fructifies everything, were a rational being which could see everything 
which it affects ; — it would then behold its own image in every sea, in 
every river, in every lake, and in every brook ; — nay, it would even 
see itself reflected on the loftiest mountains of ice ; — and would it not, 
in the abundance of its joy at such glorious radiance — forgetting 
itself — embrace all these oceans, seas and rivers — nay, the very gla- 
ciers in its arms, and delight over them? Thus Jesus Christ, the Sun 
of Righteousness, beholds His image and divine work in every renewed 
soul as in a polished mirror. Thus our eternal Father beholds in His 
children the beauty of His Son, Jesus Christ, with a complacency, which 
is more than we are able to express. He embraces them with the arms 
of His love ; and He loves the image of Himself in which He has 
renewed them. " — F. W. Kriimmacher, D. D. 



10. The World. — tw koct^. In this word we can trace the develop- 
ment from the physical to the ethical. (1) order, harmonious arrange- 
ment. (2) the world, the universe, considered as an orderly system ; 
(3) the inhabitants of this orderly world, the human race ; (4) the sum 
total of human life in the ordered world considered as hostile to God, 
arrayed against God ; (5) worldly affairs, the whole circle of worldly 
influences, which are the motives and inspiration of the hostility to God 
and His kingdom. 

Knew Him Not, because they "received Him not." 

Hawthorne compares Christianity to a grand cathedral Cathedral 

with divinely pictured windows, Viewed from without, it Windows 

is impossible to gain the slightest conception of the beauti- from 

ful forms and radiant colors manifest to those who look at Within, 

them from within. So it is with Christ. There is a glory and from 

in Hi in not visible to those without, but revealed to those Without, 
who dwell in His heart of hearts. 

Flowers and the Dew. — "There is dew in one flower and not in 
another, because one opens its cup and takes it in, while the other closes 



I : 14 ST. JOHN 17 



14. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and 
we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the 
Father,) full of grace and truth. 



Prologue. 

The Word 
Made 
Flesh. 



itself, and the drops run off. God rains His goodness 

and mercy as wide-spread as the dew, and if we lack 

them, it is because we will not open our hearts to receive them." — 

H. W. Beecker. 

Library. — Foster's Cyclopedia of Illustrations. The Story of the 
Macedonian Soldier branded with the words, " The Ungrateful Guest." 

Homer's story of the rejection of Ulysses when he returned after a 
long absence to his own home, and found his house occupied by a set of 
revellers who sneered at the travel-stained old man. — Homer's Odyssey, 
well told in Ancient Classics for English Readers. 



12. But as Many as Received Hm. — " Suppose you were in a dark 
room in the morning, the shutters closed and fastened, and only as 
much light coming through the chinks as made you aware it was day 
outside. And suppose you should say to a companion with yon, 'Let 
us open the windows and let in the light.' What would you think if 
he replied, 'No, no ; you must first pat the darkness out, or the light 
will not enter? ' You would laugh at his absurdity. Just so we cannot 
put sin out of our hearts to prepare for Christ's entering ; we must open 
and take Him in, and sin will flee ; fling the window open at once, and 
let Christ shine in." — J. Edmond, D. D. 



Power, €|ou<riav, both the right, and the power. 



Sons of God, like their Father in character and in deeds, members of 
His family, heirs of His nature, His wealth, His home. His care, His 
love. 



Library. — Wordsworth's Intimations of Immortality. 
" Not in entire forgetfulness, 
And not in utter darkness, 
But trailing clouds of glory do we come 
From God, who is our home : 
Heaven lies about us in our infancy." 



14. Was Made Flesh, <rdp| l-yc'veTo. — " This means more than that He 
assumed a human body,'" (o-wjia). <rdp| means human nature entire, 
including " a human body, a human soul, a human spirit." 
2 



1 8 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 1 : 14 

The Mystery of the Union of God and Man in one Person, Jesus 
the Christ. — We cannot explain how this can be, but we can prove 
that it is possible and reasonable by a similar mystery in 
ourselves. For each of us is a union of body and soul in The Union 
one person. This is a fact, but before it became a fact it of Soul 
would seem contradictory and unthinkable, that the imma- and Body, 
terial spirit should unite with matter, that the two should 
be distinct, and yet form one person. Every difficulty involved in 
" God dwelling in the man Christ Jesus," two and yet one person, some- 
times spoken of as separate, sometimes as the same, is illustrated in our 
own persons, and solved there, that being said of the whole which is 
true only of the soul (as that we are immortal), or again true only of the 
body (as that we are sick, or die). 



Bays a Part of the Ocean. — " I do not know how to illustrate the 
incarnation. The only thing I ever thought of is very imperfect. You 
know how the coast line of the ocean runs from Maine to Cape Cod. 
Outside is the great ocean. What is inside those little curves ? The 
ocean of course. You call one the ocean and the other the harbor or 
the bay, but it is all one ocean. The water is the same ; it tastes the 
same, looks the same. Here is the great eternal God, tilling all space, 
only in one place He flows into a little curve, Jesus of Nazareth, but it 
is the same God whether He is there in heaven, or here in Jesus. Oh, 
I hope you don't understand this. It would be such a little thing if 
you and I understood it." — Alexander McKenzie, D. D., in Northfield 
Echoes, 1897. 



The Divine and Human Saviour. — Only a Saviour who is both 
God and man can be the true Saviour of mankind. He must be Divine, 
or He could not have power to save all men at all times, in all places, 
under all circumstances. Only God is wise enough, and good enough 
to save us. Only a divine Saviour can lead to victory over all the forces 
of evil ; only He could make atonement for sin ; only He could repre- 
sent God truly to us ; only He be forever before us as our ideal, leading 
us onward and upward through eternity. 

On the other hand, He must be human, in order that He might " be 
tempted like as we are yet without sin." Thus He reaches down to our 
human experiences, and we may realize His sympathy and friendship. 
He must be God visible ; He must hold up before us a perfect human 
example ; He must gain the victory in the same battle which we are 
waging. 

The top of the ladder of Salvation, like that of Jacob's dream, must 
reach heaven and God, but the base must be on earth. 



1 : 14 ST. JOHN 19 



If Christ were only divine, we could not realize Him. v 

If He were not divine, our love and service of Him prologue. 
would lead us awav from God and not towards him. ; Tlie Word 



llade 
Flesii. 



Scripture Testimony. — ,; In my earlier days— i 

and yet I was old enough to be a lecturer in the 

Andover Theological Seminary — I wanted a new way of teaching the 

doctrine of Christ. I thought I would tell them to get a sheet of paper 

and divide it into three columns. In the first column they 

were to write every passage where Christ was spoken of Dr. Mc- 

as God- man ; in the second column all the passages where Kenzie's 

Christ was spoken of as God alone, and in the third all the Experience. 

passages where He is spoken of as man alone. I went to 

work ; I think I have the paper now. It is badly balanced. The first 

column and second filled right up, but the third column, I never found 

a passage speaking of Christ as man alone. Do you remember any such 

passage?" — Alexander McKenzie, D. D. in Xorth field Echoes. 



Dwelt Among Us. — lo-KTivwo-ev 4v r^iv, "Tabernacled" among us, 
dwelt as in a tent, as the divine Presence dwelt in the tabernacle in the 
wilderness "Tabernacled" expresses two thoughts: (1) That Christ 
really dwelt among us, and did not merely appear to some person or 
come in a vision, as in the previous ages. ('2) That His abode among us 
in this form was temporary, only a few years. 

The Tabernacle was a material representation of the great truth of the 
Incarnation. It was made after the pattern of the nature of our Lord, 
which, as the sublime antitype, was eternally present to the mind and 
thought of God. Our bodies are but frail, shifting tabernacles, to be as 
easily dissolved as a tent is struck (2 Cor. v. 1), and amidst us has been 
reared the true Tabernacle, which God has pitched and not man; and 
through which the Shekiuah has shone, kindling the frail curtains of 
mortal flesh with dazzling radiance on its passage through their folds 
in waves of glowing glory." — F. B. Meyer, D. D. 



Library. — Dante's Paradise, VII Canto. 

" the human species down below 

Lay sick for many centuries in great error, 
Till to descend it pleased the Word of God 
To where the nature, which from its own Maker 
Estranged itself, He joined to Him in person 
Bv the sole act of His eternal love." 



20 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 1 : 14 

The Coming of the Son of God into this world of battle against evil 
was the signal of victory. 

"At the battle of Sadowa, July 3, 1866, when the pickets closed in the 
morning, Von Moltke saluted King William and said, 'To-day your 
Majesty will win not only the battle, but the campaign.' 
At noon it did not seem so. Prince Frederick Charles's The Crown 
corps were withering under the hottest artillery fire of this Prince and 
century save that at Gettysburg, just three years earlier to the Battle 
the hour. In a few minutes they must give way. Hark ! of Sadowa. 
what means this cheering on the left ? New cannons boom, 
and the Austrian fire slackens. Ah ! Von Moltke knows. The Crown 
Prince has arrived with his fresh corps. He has stormed the heights of 
Chlum ; he enfilades the whole Austrian line ; Benedek is beaten ; on, 
on to Vienna ; the war is ended ! 

" Brothers, let us away bravely, each to his place in Jehovah's hosts ! 
Our Crown Prince, with fresh forces right from heaven, has reached 
the field." — E. Benjamin Andrews, D. D. y Pres. of Brown University. 

And We Beheld His Glory. — It is almost impossible from a mere 
description to fully understand the thing described. I have often tried 
to form a picture of a machine from the description of it in the Scien- 
tific American, and never succeeded. For ages no one 
could make a correct picture of the Golden Candlestick as Picture 
described in the Bible. It was not till a representation of versus 
it was discovered on the tablet within the Arch of Titus, Description, 
where the spoils of the temple were sculptured, that any one 
knew its true form. A representation made all plain. So it is that 
Jesus reveals God. Seeing Him we see the Father, as no description 
could enable us to see Him. 



Seeing the Word from God. — " In an old manuscript of the 13th or 
14th century, called Queen Mary's Prayer Book, and now in the British 
Museum, is a wood cut of the poetic and picturesque legend 
of Joseph, that when the famine in Egypt was at its height, Joseph cast- 
Joseph, who never forgot his father, took straw and threw ing Straw 
it into the river, that it might carry tidings to the country in the Nile, 
of his father, where wheat was to be had. The presence 
of Jesus among us shows where the source of goodness is, where are 
all blessedness, all powers, all victories, all supplies for the soul." — Mrs. 
Jamieson's History of our Lord. 

The Incarnation was no Afterthought of God — " No appendix 
or codicil to the divine plan, but piece of God's eternal programme for 



I: 14 ST. JOHN 21 

man. Least of all can sin claim the 2:1 orv of occasion- •b •%• 



Guiltless humanity would not have been prologue, 
perfect humanity. It would have required to advance The Word 
from strength to strength and from beautv to beautv, i J , a< \! 

even as Christ Himself did while on earth ; and in this 
it would have needed His inspiration and guidance. "*" ' 

Can any one suppose that God would have kept back 
His most splendid work simply because no depravity attacked our 
ancestors. Does Satan deserve thanks for tempting Eve. that she might 
fall, and call for the Restorer?" — Pres. E. Benjamin Andrews. LL. D. 



Jesus Christ Counts in our Estimate of Man. — •• Xo conception 
and no estimate of mankind is adequate or just which omits Jesus 
Christ. We speak of humanity as fickle, frail, prone to go astray, sin- 
ful, vile, so many children of the Devil. Such speech expresses a truth 
when it refers to men taken as they come. Applied to humanity in 
the proper sense it is a stupendous criminal libel. Do not judge San 
Francisco by the hoodlums. The thugs are not India. And pray never 
commit the error of regarding the human beings to whom so many hard 
names can be applied, as comprising humanity. The true notion of 
mankind takes in Jesus. The actual value of humanity is common 
humanity plus Jesus Christ. He belongs to it as truly as Socrates. 
Gustavus Adolphus. or William Kemmler. He was no naturalized 
citizen of earth, but born here. Indict the race as you will. You can 
set forth a very long account against it. — sad, serious, most compromis- 
. ig One item is Caesar Borgia, another is Captain Kidd ; I am a third, 
you are a fourth. Put them all down, do not omit any, black though 
the page may be. But. oh, book-keeper, critic, censor of thy kind. I 
adjure thee by the sacred majesty of truth, write up the credit page as 
well ! Write St. Paul's name upon it. Enter Judson there. Enter 
John Henry Newman on that page. Enter Marcus Amelias. Alfred the 
:. George Washington. But at the top of it, in letters of living 
light which at once God. all on earth, even the blind, all men, angels, 
and devils can read, write that Xarae which is above every name ! It 
belongs there, and it will go far to balance the account. I can never 
admit that sin is a good, or even a necessary concomitant of good. But 
Hue I believe, that a sinning humanity, with Jesus for its Masterpiece 
and Redeemer, is a finer thing than a sinless humanity with no Jesus 
could ever have been. And we have aright — yes, we are in duty 
bound — to allow for Jesus Christ in all our calculations about what 
humanity may hope to become." — Pres. E. Benjamin Andrews, LL. D. 

Cheist the Mxrbok of God. — " There is in Rome an elegant fresco 
by Guido — The Aurora, It covers a lofty ceiling. Looking up at it 



22 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS I: 15,16 

15. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying. This was he of whom I spake, 
He that cometh after me is preferred before me ; for he was before me. 

16. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. 

from the pavement your neck grows stiff, your head dizzy, and the 
figures indistinct. You soon tire and turn away. The 
owner of the palace has placed a broad mirror near the floor. Guido's 
You may now sit down before it as at a table, and at your Aurora 
leisure look into the mirror, and enjoy the fresco that is 
above you. There is no more weariness, nor indistinctness, nor dizzi- 
ness. Like the Rospiglioso mirror beneath the 'Aurora,' Christ reflects 
the image of God." In Him, as in a mirror, we see the grace and truth 
and love of God. 



Of Grace (xapiros). — The word primarily means that which gives joy, 
the beauty, loveliness, goodness, which bring delight. The graces 
express " the beauty of holiness." Thence, kindness, favor, good will 
— the loving spirit which inspires those virtues. Then naturally the 
gifts and favors which are the fruit and expression of good will. Of all 
these Jesus was full. Farrar, in his Life of Christ in Art, says, " As 
regards the Gospels we see, with great distinctness, that every detail 
points to the certainty that there was something majestic and winning 
in the personal presence of Jesus." 

Library. — President Mark Hopkins' Strength and Beauty. 



16. His Fulness. — The overflowingness of the natural world which 
Christ created is a faint symbol of the overflowing fulness of His own 
nature. The sun does not give forth merely enough light and heat for 
this world and the few planets, but ten thousand times more are radi- 
ated through space. Plant and animal life is not limited to human 
needs, but there are countless numbers and an infinite variety. Plants 
bear vastly more seeds than can ever grow. One grain of corn, if all 
the grains it bore were planted and grew, would cover the whole earth 
with corn in a few years. One codfish would fill the ocean solid with 
fish in ten years. Then everything has many uses, many and varied 
powers and combinations and correlations, new ones coming continually 
into notice. Everywhere, — in water, in air, in fruits, in materials, in 
the multiplicity of uses and powers, — nature is infinitely overflowing 
to teach us to see and to trust the fulness of the grace and truth of 
our Saviour who created it. 



Reference. --See under iv : 14, " Thor's Drinking-horn. 



1:15, i6 



ST. JOHN 



23 



Prologue. 

Grace for 

Grace. 



Mines for Treasure- chests. —An ambassador of 
ancient Spain was taken to see the precious treasures 
of Venice, which were kept in guarded custody in the 
Palace of St. Mark. The Spaniard began to grope 
among the chests and cabinets as if to find the bottom. 
On being asked what he was doing, he said he wanted 
to compare their wealth with that of the king, his master, 
chests," said he, " excel yours, for you cannot reach the bottom, 
are the precious gold and silver mines of Mexico and Peru." 



"His 
They 



Of His Fulness Have all we Received. — " God longs for us to 
live full lives ; and that we may, He has stored all His glorious 
resources into the nature of the Man Christ Jesus, so making them 
accessible an 1 patting them within the reach of the weakest and most 
sinful of His chil iren. Thus does the channel of the Nile bring water 
which is generate:! in the mountains of Central Africa, within reach of 
the Egyptian peasants, whose gardens are situated on the edge of the 
burning sands Why, then, are we so content with poverty and empti- 
ness ? Let us receive out of His fulness. It is continually throbbing 
like an ocean against the walls of our hearts ; it is for us to open and 
let it in, that it may cover the long unsightly reaches of ooze and 
sand." — F. B. Meyer, D. D. 



Grace for Grace. — Is literally, grace in the place of grace, one 
grace succeeding another, and, as it were, taking its place. — Cambridge 
Bible. Either (1) grace given in fresh measure, as former grace is 
improved, each grace being a step to a higher; or, (2) grace given to 
His children, corresponding to each grace in His own nature, — love 
like. His love, purity like His purity, the presence of the Holy Spirit in 
them as it was in Him. " Not only the freeness of Divine grace is sug- 
gested by this expression, but also its adaptation to every state and 
want of the renewed man, as he passes on from childhood to maturity 
in the Divine life." — Dr. Houey, in American Commentary. 



Chorus your Virtues. — " In the familiar scripture (-3 Pet. i. 5-8), 
' Add to your faith virtue,' etc., ' the word translated "add " eirixopTryTi- 
o-<xt€, from x°P 1 1'y <i s (choregos, a leader of a chorus), has been anglicized, 
and is our word ' chorus.' Peter says, ' Chorus your faith.' Sustain it 
with the music of all the well-tuned graces of heaven. The first violin leads 
in rendering the grand masterpiece of the musical genius. The com- 
position would be grand were the first violin the only instrument to 
render it. The sweep of the music would be vast. There would be 



24 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS I: 15,16 

melody and thrilling chords. But the first violin is not left alone. It 
is chorused and sustained. The second violin takes a part. The third 
violin takes a part. The flute takes a part. The deep-toned trumpet 
takes a part. The bass viol takes a part. The rolling drum takes a 
part. The tinkling cymbal takes a part. And all together, and in per- 
fect unison, sound out the one grand conception of the one grand mind, 
and all together chorus the leading instrument. As you listen you are 
reminded of the words of the Apocalyptist, when he describes the music 
of the skies, and declares that it is like the sound of many waters and 
the voice of the miglity thunders. Such is the figure of the Apostle 
Peter. He says, ' Let the grace of faith lead in the grand song of life. 
Let it pour out its clear, triumphant music upon the listening world. 
Its music is sublime; but compel it not to sing alone. Chorus it. 
Chorus it. Chorus it with boldness. Chorus it with knowledge. Chorus 
it with self-mastery. Chorus it witli steadfast endurance. Chorus it 
with piety. Chorus it with love for the brethren. Let all the graces 
pour out their deep-seated and soul- stirring music, so that the listening 
world may have a large anticipation of the heavenly harmonies, and a 
grand rehearsal of the song that is sung by the choir of the redeemed.' " 
— David Gregg, D. D., in the Heaven Life. 



The Lesson of Grace for Grace ' ' is that one grace is given instead 
of another. We cannot live to-day on the strength of yesterday's 
food, but each day has its own bread. Yesterday's sunshine will not 
light the earth to-day, but there is other sunshine ready each new 
morning. When you were in sorrow a while ago, God came to you 
and comforted you in wonderful ways — through his promises, or 
through a human friend who brought you blessing, or through a book 
whose words were like a heavenly lamp pouring its light upon your 
darkness. When a new sorrow comes, that old comfort cannot be used 
again; but you will have other comfort for your new sorrow — comfort 
in place of the comfort which is past." — J. R. Miller, D. D. 



The Need of Grace and Graces — The Religious Porcupine. — 
" The porcupine is a fitting symbol of the disagreeable. With his long, 
sharp spines sticking out in every direction, he wounds all who venture 
to touch him. Some assert that he has a habit, in his more than 
usually disagreeable moods, of shooting off his quills like darts, and 
thus wounding those at a distance from him. 

In our books on natural history these animals are described as quad- 
rupeds; but we have seen a species of biped that, if not identical, is 
certainly very closely related to them. We find them in our churches, 



I: iq, 16 ST. JOHN 25 



and occasionally they make their way into the prayer- •%> 

meeting, though they are not regular attendants there. prologue. 
Their religion is of a kind peculiar to themselves, and Grace for 

they wear it as a porcupine does his quills." — Rev. Grace. 

George H. Hubbard. a 



Gems Xeed to be Polished. — Xo gem reveals its true beauties in a 
natural state. The diamond in the rough is most unattractive; its per- 
fections are hidden under a hard crust, which can only be removed by 
its own powder. The deep velvet hue of the sapphire, the brilliant red 
of the ruby, the soft clear green of the emerald, only display them- 
selves after the lapidary has used his skill in cutting them into facets 
and polishing them. There are, of course, plenty of polished stones 
which are not gems, aud plenty of polite people who are not of high 
moral worth; but the necessity remains that gems should be polished 
and Christians refined. — Dr. Dickson. 



How we Gain Grace for Grace. — " In the Royal Gallery at Dres- 
den maybe often seen a group of connoisseurs, who sit for hours before 
a single painting. They walk around those halls whose walls are so 
eloquent with the triumphs of art. and they come back, 
and pause again before that one masterpiece. "Weeks are Studying 
spent yearly in the study of that one work of Raphael, a Master- 
with its matchless forms. In our picture gallery of Bible piece, 
characters we may study many beauties of form and 
feature, but for the masterpiece we must return continually to our 
Lord Jesus Christ."— Prof. Austin Phelps in The Still Hour. 



Gazing at the Christ \Ve Become Lh^e Him. — " Years ago in a 
Roman palace there hung a beautiful picture, upon which crowds went 
to gaze. Among them a young painter unknown to fame went daily 
to look upon it. until his soul was refreshed by its beauty, and a great 
longing came into his heart to copy it. but he was sternly refused per- 
mission. He returned repulsed, but not discouraged. Day and night 
its beauty haunted him. Copy it he must. Daily he came to the 
palace, coming early and leaving late, and, sitting before 
the picture gazed upon it till it grew into him. and became Studying 
part of himself, and one day he hurried home to his easel a Painting 
and began to paint. Each day he came and gazed at the at Koine, 
picture, and then went home and reproduced bit by bit. 
unweariedly. patiently, something of its beauty. Each fresh day's look 
corrected the last day"s faults, and as he toiled his power grew> and his 



26 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS I: 15,16 

hidden genius blazed out. Months after in that humble studio there 
stood such a wonderful copy of the Vatican picture that those who saw 
it could not rest until they had seen the beautiful original." — Our Own 
Magazine. 



Power of Dwelling Among the Good. —Plato would exclude 
from his model Republic, not only all bad poets and writers, but bad 
workmen of every kind; because by viewing what was ill-proportioned 
and out of harmony, the minds of the people would be injured. 
" Being trained by images of evil, as in a bad pasture land, 
they would establish imperceptibly, little by little, some Plato's 
mighty evil in their soul. But rather should we seek for Republic, 
such craftsmen as by help of a good natural genius can 
investigate the nature of the beautiful and becoming; in order that our 
youths dwelling as it were in a healthful place may receive advantage 
on all sides; and so receive some service' from fine productions, just as 
a breeze brings health from healthy places." 



Library. — Among the booklets we have The Face of Christ, by 
Katharine Pearson Woods, " an old legend retold for Christmas." It is 
a sweet and tender little story of an artist who had sold his soul to 
Satan, but as his last work determined to paint the face of Christ, which 
he did with such effect that it transformed his whole life. 



Power op Good Thoughts., — Do we realize the power there is in the 
companionship of our own thoughts. ''Whatsoever things are pure, 
whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if 
there be any virtue, if there be any praise," thinking on these things, 
abiding with the Beautiful, the Good and the True, transforms the 
soul, as the Christ lamp in the fisherman's hut, in Goethe's Tale of 
Tales, transformed its rough boards and beams into an exquisitely 
wrought temple of solid silver. 

Library. — See Carlyle's Essays for an interpretation of Goethe's 
Tale of Tales. 



It was said of William Pitt, the younger, the Prime Minister of Eng- 
land at twenty-three years of age, that no one ever entered his closet, if 
it was for only five minutes, who did not come out of it a stronger and 
braver man than he was when he went in. 



New Revelations to Continued Study. — " The noblest objects 
never disclose their best meaning at first sight. Sir Joshua Reynolds 



I : 15, 16 ST. JOHN 27 



Prologue. 

Grace for 

Grace. 



says that when he visited Italy to make the acquaint- 
ance of the celebrated masterpieces, he was much 
cast down. The renowned masters maintained toward 
him a quiet and dignified silence ; they refused to 
confide to him their thoughts. He gazed steadfastly »j 
and could not behold their glory. Persevering, how- 
ever, the pictures gradually began to raise their veils, and permit him 
to have an occasional peep at their rare beauty : they softly whispered 
to him a few of their secrets ; and as he continued unwavering in his 
devotion, they at last flung away their reserve, showed themselves 
with an open face, and revealed to him the wealth of beautiful ideas 
that was lodged in them. As with pictures, so with characters. 
The diviner the life, the closer the inspection requisite to under- 
stand it. But of all characters, ancient or modern, none demand so 
much intent gazing as that of Jesus Christ. Potences perfectly 
novel in the history of the world exert their subtle influence ; the 
human and the Divine, the grace and the truth, are so closely associ- 
ated, that not at once do we grasp the radical idea, and perceive 
its subdued, tempered beauty. The depth and manifoldness of Christ's 
character form the reason for the well-nigh two hundred lives and har- 
monies which have been launched upon the world. A difficult character 
to understand fully, for its beauty only grows upon us by degrees. 
Every age discovers a new trait; every fresh generation perceives a 
fresh excellence ; and thus from age to age He increases in loveliness in 
the estimation of men. He continues to reveal to the loving earnest 
gaze His glory, 'the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father.'" — 
J. Gynddlan Jones, D. D. 



Seeing Christ from all Sides. — "One of our American artists, 
wishing to perfect for himself a portrait and a bast of Shake- 
speare, took the death-mask from the face of the poet, and Photographs 
had twenty or thirty photographs made, from every possible of 

angle of vision, that he might get the fullest light on every Shakespeare's 
point of face and head ; then came the portrait on the can- Mask, 
vas, and then the stately head in marble." — Dr. R. S. Storrs. 
" Thus, in many aspects, the Lord walks before us in grace and truth, 
and from many aspects can we see Jesus as He is, and gain from Him 
grace for grace." 



Grace by Grace Used. — The best means of getting more grace is to 
use the grace we already have. It is the law of all life, especially of 
spiritual life : " Whosoever hath to him shall be given, and he shall have 
more abundance." It is becoming an acknowledged truth by educators, 



28 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS I : 17-20 



17. For the law was g'wea by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. 
IS. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the 
bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. 

19. If And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from 
Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? 

20. And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. 

that hand- work well and faithfully done, educates the mind. Hand-work 
for Christ in the use of graces, increases the graces in the soul. No one 
really knows a thing till he does it. 



18. The Invisible Things of God, Declared by Christ. — "There 
are even material agents in existence around us so subtle as to elude the 
cognizance of the senses. There are powers in nature whose ever-pre- 
sent influence we perceive, yet which themselves are never directly dis- 
cerned. The varied forms and colors of material objects around us the 
eye can detect, but not the latent electricity that pervades them. The 
masses and motions of the planetary bodies are appreciable by the sight ; 
but the keenest organs of sense cannot see gravitation, cannot detect 
that mysterious power, as it flies through space, binding orb to orb. 
And if thus on the confines, so to speak, of the material and spiritual 
worlds, there are agents impalpable to sense, much more, when we pass 
those limits, do we enter into a region where bodily organs fail us, and 
a vision and faculty far more divine are needed. Who has seen thought ? 
What eye has ever rested on that mysterious essence which we designate 
mind, soul, spirit? If it be that spiritual intelligence surround us, if 
millions of spiritual beings walk the earth both when we wake and 
sleep, yet, as they pass hither and thither on their heavenly ministries, 
does the faintest sign of the presence of these glorious beings ever flash 
on the dull sense of man ? Nay, are we not dwellers in a world of 
embodied spirits, holding continual intercourse with them, witnessing 
constantly the proofs of their existence and the effects of their activity : 
yet has one human spirit ever become visible to another ? No ! it is but 
the forms of spirit that are visible to sense. We see in the busy world 
around us the mere houses of souls. In this sense, then, God is now 
and ever must be in-visible. If even a finite spirit cannot be seen by the 
bodily eye, how much less the infinite spirit?" — John Caird, D. D. 



Seeing God. — It is impossible to see God any farther than we are like 
Him. The man born blind cannot even conceive of the flowers of sight. 
The man who does not love cannot conceive of what love is. What is 
true of physical sensations is probably true of spiritual vision. In 



1: 21-23 ST - JOHN 29 

* 



A. ». 26. 

Summer and 

Autumn. 

Wilderness 

of Judea. 

John 
Preparing 
the Way. 



21. Aud they asked him, What then ? Art thou Elias? And 
he saith, I am not. Art thou that Prophet? And he answered, 
No. 

22. Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may 
give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of 
thyself? 

23. He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 
Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet », 
Esaias. 

the Popular Science Monthly a statement about possible senses and 
sensations was given, as here condensed : " Sound is the sensation pro- 
duced on us when the vibrations of the air strike on the drum of our 
ear. When they are few, the sound is deep ; as they increase in number, 
it becomes shriller and shriller; but when they reach 40,000 in a second 
they cease to be audible. Light is the effect produced on us when waves 
of light strike on the eye. When four hundred millions of millions of 
vibrations of ether strike the retina in a second, they produce red, and 
as the number increases the color passes into orange, then yellow, 
then green, blue, and violet. But between 40,000 vibrations in a second 
and four hundred millions of millions we have no organ of sense capable 
of receiving the impression. Yet between these limits any number 
of sensations may exist. We have five senses, and sometimes fancy 
that no other is possible. But it is obvious that we cannot measure the 
infinite by our own narrow limitations." It is quite probable that there 
are as many possibilities of spiritual knowledge and feeling, of which 
we as yet know nothing, but onLy as we gain them can we even see in 
His fullness our God whose powers are infinite. All that we can see is 
revealed by His works, and especially by Jesus Christ who not only 
reveals what God is, but implants the new life, as the purity of heart 
by which we can see what He reveals. 



18. Hath Declared Him, k%r\yi\<ra.To, from Ik, forth, and Tjve'ojjLai, to lead 
the way, hence to lead the way into the meaning of any thing, by words, 
to interpret, to translate. ' ' Therefore c^vtjo-is, exegesis, is interpretation 
or explanation. The word e£qynTT|s was used by the Greeks of an 
expounder of oracles, dreams, omens, or sacred rights. Thus Croesus, 
finding the suburbs of Sardis alive with serpents, sent to the soothsayers 
(l|iTyt]Tds) of Telmessus (Herodotus, i., 78)." — M. R. Vincent. 

John is called " a voice " because (1) He was the utterer of God's 
thought. (2) "The whole man was a sermon." (3) He called attention 
not to himself, but to his message, as does every true preacher and 
teacher, (4) Himself weak and insignificant, like words, sound, motion 
in the air, he yet produced a mighty effect on the souls of men. 



30 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS I : 24-29 

24. And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. 

25. And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizeth thou then, if thou 
be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that Prophet? 

26. John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one 
among you, whom ye know not ; 

27. He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I 
am not worthy to unloose. 

28. These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was bap- 
tizing. 

29. If The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the 
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world! 

Make Straight the Way of the Lord. —Dr. Trumbull in his 
Studies in Oriental Social Life, speaks of the narrow streets of Alex- 
andria packed with half naked cripples, blind beggars, 
veiled women, men in bright-colored garments, children in The Herald 
none, donkeys trotting through the crowd, when, suddenly, in 

out of all this confusion, a sharp, clear voice was heard, Alexandria. 
" Take care, to thy right, to thy left," from a lithe -limbed 
young Egyptian, gayly dressed, with his loins girded, coming on the 
run, swinging a light staff in his hand, and repeating his cries to the 
throng in the street to make way for those who were to follow. Close 
behind him came an open carriage, drawn by a span of showy horses, 
containing an officer of the government. Thus John came to bid men, 
and customs, and prejudices, and useless forms, and sins of all kinds to 
stand aside and let the Prince of Peace come to their hearts and to 
their nation. 

Another method of preparing the way was by building and repairing 
highways when the king of a country was to pass through. The roads 
there are so exceedingly bad that this is a necessity. " A '-king's high- 
way ' had to be carried through the open land of the wilder- 
ness, valleys filled up, and hills leveled (the words used Preparing 
are, of course, poetical in their greatness), winding by- the Way. 
paths straightened for the march of the great army." — 
Ellicott. " On going from Cairo to the pyramids, over an exceptionally 
good road, the traveler will not fail to be told that it was built for the 
Prince of Wales, or for the Empress Eugenie, or for the Khedive him- 
self, or even, rarely, for Napoleon the Great." — Prof. Isaac Hall. 

Library. — An example is given in Stanley's Through the Dark Con- 
tinent, I., 198. 



29. Which Taketh Away the Sin op the World. — " I have read of 
one who dreamed a dream, when in great distress of mind about 
religion. He thought he stood in the outer court of heaven, and he 



A. ». 26. 

Summer and 

A utumn. 

The Lamb 

of God. 



1:24, 29 ST. JOHN 31 

saw a glorious host marching up, singing sweet hymns 
and bearing tlie banners of victory, and they passed 
by him through the gate, and when they vanished he 
heard in the distance sweet strains of music. 'Who 
are they ? ' he asked. ' They are the goodly fellowship 
of the prophets, who have gone to be with God.' And 
he heaved a deep sigh as he said, 'Alas, I am not one 
of them, and never shall be; I cannot enter there." By and by 
there came another band, equally lovely in appearance, and equally 
triumphant, and robed in white. They passed within the portals, 
and again were shouts of welcome heard within. 'Who are they?' 
he asked. ' They are the goodly fellowship of the apostles.' ' Alas,' he 
said, 'I belong not to that fellowship, and cannot enter there.' He still 
waited and lingered, in the hope that he might get in ; but the next 
multitude did not encourage him, for they were a noble army of mar- 
tyrs. He could not go with them, nor wave their palm branches. At 
last, as he walked, he saw a larger host than all the rest put together, 
marching and singing most melodiously, and in front walked a woman 
that was a sinner, and the thief that died on the cross, hard by the 
Saviour; and he thought: 'There will be no shouting about them.' 
But to his astonishment, it seemed as if all heaven was rent with seven- 
fold shouts as they passed in. And the angel said to him : ' These are 
they that are mighty sinners saved by miglity grace.' And then he 
said: 'Blessed be God, I can go in with them.' And so he awoke. 
Blessed be God, you and I too can go in with that company. I cannot 
hope to go in anywhere but with that company. Such is my own sense 
of how I expect to enter heaven, and we will go together, brother sin- 
ner or sister sinner, trusting in the precious blood and washed in the 
blood of the Lamb. God grant it may be so." — Spurgeon. 



The Dying Words of Rev. Dr. Alfred Cookman : — 
He lay upon his dying couch, 
Sustained by grace ; amazing grace ! 
For while pain racked each quivering nerve, 
Heaven's glory shone upon his face. 
For he was washed , 
Washed in the blood of the Lamb. 

" If now my Lord should come and ask 
If life or death my choice would be, 
I'd say, My Lord, I have no choice, 
Do thou as seemeth good to thee. 

So sweetly am I now 
Washed in the blood of the Lamb. 



32 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS I : 30, 36 

SO. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before 
me; for he was before me. 

31. And I knew him nut: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, there- 
fore am I come baptizing with water. 

32. And John bare record, saying, 1 saw the Spirit descending from heaven like 
a dove, and it abode upon him. 

33. And I knew him not; but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same 
said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on 
him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. 

34. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God. 

35. IF Again the next day after, John stood, and two of his disciples- 

36. And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God! 

'• I had a vision lying here : 
Methought my sainted father came 
And holding me in love's embrace 
He drew me on toward the throne, 
And said, when near that glorious place, 
This is my son, 
Washed in the blood of the Lamb. 

" My brother came to greet me now, 
Rejoiced to find me safe at home ; 
Then leading me to Jesus' feet, 
He said, my Lord, Alfred has come, 
My brother dear, 
Washed in the blood of the Lamb. 

" Two arms around my neck were thrown, 
Two lips were closely pressed on mine ; 
My precious boy exulting cried, 
The glory Lord be ever thine ; 
My papa's here, 
Washed in the blood of the Lamb." 

With eyelids closed, he seemed to see 
The fiery chariot by his side, 
One last fond look on loved ones here, 
Then with triumphant voice he cried, 

" I'm sweeping through the gates, 
Washed in the blood of the Lamb." — Juniata. 

35. The First Disciples of Jesus. — " The headwaters of a river are 
places of enduring interest." "The Sources of the Dee, says Rev. W. 
Wynne Peyton, in his Memorabilia of Jesus," are in the 
highest and longest mountain plateau in Britain, 4200 feet Headwaters 
above the sea. Numerous springs bubble up from a granite of the Dee. 



I:;;, 38 ST. tohx 33 



37. And the two disciples heard him speak, and thev fol- 
lowed Jesus. A.IK 27. 

38. Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith : February. 
uato them. What seek ve? They said unto him, Rabbi (which Disciples 
is to sav, beinor interpreted, Master), where dwellest thou"? John and 

Andrew. 



floor — I have counted 26 of them — forming little pools 
which unite their waters into a tiny stream." " This geographical sanc- 
tuary of headwaters is not known to many even in this crowded land 
of ours. Ducal and royal palaces are built on the banks of the Dee 
lower down, and pleasant homes all along its course, and a University 
city at the mouth of it." The headwaters of the great Christian world, 
its first ideas and emotions, its first methods, its first disciples, are of 
great interest to us all. 



Note the Self-Renunciation of John, willing to yield up his appar- 
ent success for the honor of his Master and the salvation of 
men. But his very success was in his apparent defeat. Success 
His work was to prepare men for the Saviour, and lead by Defeat. 
them to him, and the more successful he was, the sooner his 
disciples would leave him and follow Jesus. A good teacher is always 
preparing scholars to graduate. His success is in having his scholars 
leave him for the life for which he has been preparing them. 

Reference. — See under iii : 29. " Others shall sing the song." 



36. Behold the Lamb of God. — The illustration is in the paschal 
lamb through which all who obeyed were saved from the destroying 
angel, and began the journey through the Wilderness to the Promised 
land. 

Library. — Poem on Alfred Cookman, "Washed in the blood of the 
Lamb."' 



But now the Blood of the Lamb, — 

' ' Bids sins of a crimson-like dye 

Be spotless as snow, and as white, 
And makes such a sinner as I 
As pure as an angel of light." 



Taeeth away the Sen of the World. — The earnest ones, both as 
individuals and as a nation, were like Ladv Macbeth, washing her 
3 



34 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS I : 39-4I 

39. He saith unto thein, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and 
abode with him that day : for it was about the tenth hour. 

40. One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, 
Simon Peter's brother. 

41. He first fiudeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found 
the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. 

hands in vain endeavor to cleanse away the spots of sin. They were 
like the man in Ethelwyn Wetherald's poem, — 

" I talked with you to-day, all three — 
Two of you lurked unseen — 
Yourself, the boy you used to be 
And the man you might have been. 

You never knew that silently 

They smiled at you unseen, — 
The ardent boy you used to be 

And the man you might have been." 



38. What Seek Ye? — The answer each person makes to this ques- 
tion both tests and determines his character and his destiny. 
For what port are you steering? What road "nave you The Aim 
chosen to travel? What is the aim and purpose of your of Life 
life, — Jesus, the Kingdom of God, goodness, usefulness, or 
selfishness, worldly success, money, pleasure? One way leads to 
heaven, the other to hell. 



39. Come. They Abode with Him. — " His feeling is that if any man 
wants to see Him, He wants to see that man. The old proverb, Tres 
faciunt Ecclesiam, "Three make a church," is always true when one of 
the three is Jesus. " — Dr. C. F. Deems, LL. D. Some one has said that 
President Mark Hopkins sitting on a log with one student, was a 
University, 

Contrast this simple, natural, quiet coming to Christ with the sudden 
conversion of Paul. " There was no struggle, no agony ; 
they saw the light, the fulness of grace and truth, and Many Gates 
gladly and lovingly followed it."— Bp. II. W. Warren. to the 
Either way is good, if only we really come to Christ. The City of God 
City of God has gates on every side, and it makes little 
difference from which direction we come, or through which of its twelve 
gates we enter, if only we come within. 



I : 39-41 



ST. JOHN 



35 



These disciples came to Jesus, because with Hitri 
were all the things their souls needed, as the hungry 
man is attracted to food, and the chilly man to the 
fire, and the thirsty man to the streams of water. 



D. D. 27. 

February. 

The First 
Disciples 
John and 
Andrew. 



41. He First Findeth his own Brother Simon. 
— This is an example of the parable of the leaven in 
which one particle acts upon another till the whole is leavened. 
"Introduced into the meal it communicates a change to the whole 
mass analogous to that which it is itself experiencing. One part 
mixed with 2,000 parts will change the whole in a few hours. It 
had long been a mystery how so small a quantity of one substance 
should be able to effect such a change upon so large a 
mass of another. But the discovery that leaven con- Leaven 
tains a fungus plant which multiplies with prodigious 
rapidity, and is sustained by the matter into which the leaven is intro- 
duced, furnishes an explanation. This yeast plant consists of myriads 
of cells, scarcely more than one three-thousandth of an inch in diam- 
eter. Note the two principles : (1) It needs but a very small quantity 
of leaven to produce a complete change in a very large amount of 
farinaceous matter. (2) It is only necessary to start the process in one 
or a few spots in order to have it permeate the entire heap (unless, as in 
bread, the process be stopped by heat). ' The whole secret of the spread 
of Christianity over the world is in this figure of the leaven.' — 
President Hitchcock. Pasteur has demonstrated, to the acceptance of 
the whole scientific world, that ferments are not portions of lifeless 
organic matter; but are actual living organisms, and. that the fermen- 
tations which they occasion is a necessary consequence of manifesta- 
tion of their vital activity and growth." — Prof. W. H. Thomson, M. D. 

Library. — President Hitchcock's Religious Truth Illustrated from 
Science, "The Catalytic Power of the Gospel." Prof. Wm. H. Thom- 
son's Parables and their Home, " The Parable of the Leaven." 



The Ten to Strangers, is an organization in the Calvary Baptist 
Church of Washington, D. C. It grew out of ' ' The Kings Son's," which, 
like "The King's Daughters," consisted of ten persons pledged to some 
kind of Christian work. There are now twelve or fifteen members, but 
they go under the old name. One part of their work is to go around to 
all the leading hotels of Washington each Saturday afternoon, and 
obtain the names of the young men who are guests for the Sabbath. 
To each of these they send a personal letter of invitation to the Calvary 
Baptist Church and Sunday School. The result is a very large attend- 
ance of young men at that church, more than at any other church in 



36 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS I : 39-41 

the city. Of course ' ' The Ten to Strangers " are on hand to welcome 
those they have invited. 

One incident was of interest. A young man at a certain hotel took 
his invitation from the post-office box, glanced at it, and threw it away. 
The clerk picked it up, put it in another envelope, and laid it in his box. 
At tea-time he had this second invitation. He threw it away, but by the 
kindness of the clerk it was again put in an envelope, so that at bed- 
time he had a third invitation. He was astonished, but threw it aside. 
However, at breakfast, the letter of invitation in a new envelope was 
beside his plate. When he received this invitation the fourth time, he 
made up his mind that if any church would send him four invitations 
in one evening, it was time for him to go there and see what it meant. 



Ten Times One is Ten. — Edward Everett Hale's capital story, Ten 
limes one is Ten, shows us clearly how the religion of Christ may be 
made to fill the whole earth by the personal effort of Christians. Add- 
ing to his motto "Look up. not down; look out, and not in; look for- 
ward, not back; and lend a hand," the love and salvation of Jesus Christ, 
each Christian may lead others to Christ, till the whole earth shall be 
rilled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. 
" Look up " legions, " Ten times one is ten " societies have sprung up in 
many places, and are widely spread. Nearly all the 500 students of 
Wellesley College belong to ' ' Ten times one is ten " companies. 



The Brotherhood of St. Andrew and Philip was named from 
the work of these two early disciples in leading others to Jesus. There 
are now nearly 400 societies. 



A Pastor's Record. — During nearly all my pastorate, I kept a 
record concerning those who united with the church, of various things 
pertaining to the beginning of their religious life. Under one heading 
was the instrumentality through which they became Christians ; and in 
the great majority of cases it was through personal invitation or influ- 
ence. 



" The Bee-hunter in America puts a piece of honeycomb into a box, 
and catches a bee. He then covers the box, and very soon the bee fills 
himself with the honey. Being let loose it finds its way home, and in a 
little time returns, but not alone. He brings his companions with him, 
and in turn they bring their companions, till the box is filled with a full 
swarm of bees. Let every Sunday scholar and every attendant at a 
Christian church do likewise. If they have tasted that word which is 
sweeter than honey, let them bring their companions and neighbors with 
them." — Biblical Illustrator, 



A. D. 27. 

February. 

The First 
Disciples 
Jolin and 
Andrew. 



1:39-41 ST. JOHN 37 

The Power of Units. — " This teaches us the 
immense power of units. All nature bears witness to 
this power. How are the tremendous throes of the 
earthquake propagated ? Simply by each unit com- 
municating the vibratory shock it has received to its 
neighbor. But by this action cities may be overthrown. 

How are the waves of the sea rolled up mountain high ? •%> 4* 

Only by each drop of water communicating its 
momentum to the next drop. But in this way ships are wrecked. How 
have great masses of population been transferred from Europe to our 
own shores? Chiefly by the sending by individuals for their individual 
friends. This is the way great movements begin and are carried on . 
This is the way Christianity began, and in the same way it has spread 
over the globe." — A. F. Schauffler, D. D. 



Growth of Units. — " If you want to see how this power of the unit 
grows, just take a pencil and figure out how many years it would take 
for the whole world to be converted, if each year each disciple were to 
win one other to follow the Lord. Suppose that you start with only ten 
million true disciples, how long would it take to Christianize the world? 
Would one hundred years accomplish the task ? Much less. The whole 
would be done in seven years.'' — Schauffler 



ExAiiPLES. — "I do not know who was instrumental in calling Mr. 
Moody to Christ, but, whoever he was, if he never did 
another thing for Christ, he did much. In New York, Mr. Moody, 
years ago, a city missionary found a poor Jew. He strove 
to lead him to the Messiah, and succeeded. In after years that Jew 
became a missionary himself, and a bishop of the Episcopal Church, 
and translated the Word of God for millions of people. No one knows 
the name of that missionary but a few of his friends, 
though thousands know the name of the distinguished Missionaries, 
convert. Years ago, in Russia, a Catholic priest so preached 
that a young mechanic who heard was converted. That mechanic 
became a missionary, and translated the Bible twice over for two 
different nations, learned nineteen languages, and was a most useful 
man. Few ever heard of the priest, but many thousand knew of his 
convert. Probably no preacher ever had as great success as Mr. Spur- 
geon. He has had many thousands added to his church, 
and has established thirty-six missions in London. Yet, as Spurgeon. 
he tells the story, he was converted by the preaching of an 
obscure preacher, whose very name I never have heard. Millions know 



38 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 1:39-41 

of Mr. Spurgeon who will never, till the judgment day, hear the name 
of his benefactor. 

Japan owes the late Joseph Nessima a boundless debt of gratitude for 
his wise and unceasing labors for the kingdom, in his native 
land. But does it owe nothing to those who in this land Nessima. 
led that student to the feet of the Saviour ? 

If God will not forget a cup of cold water, will He forget The Cup of 
a deed that is done for Him in bringing some one else to Cold Water, 
a knowledge of the truth ? 

If this be true, it yet may be also true that God shall use you for the 
conversion of a Moody or a Spurgeon or a Moffat. A child 
can light a match that shall set a city on fire. An unknown Great Results 
man can draw a bow at a venture that shall smite a king from Little 
between the joints of the harness, and turn a battle. So in Things, 
things spiritual you and I, feeble though we may be, can 
start a succession of causes that shall result in blessing untold millions 
of our fellow-creatures. — A. F. Schauffler, D. D., in Sunday-School 
Times. 



We cannot move the train, but we can turn the lever that lets on the 
steam. We cannot blow up the rocks at Hell-gate obstructing navi- 
gation to New York, but a little child touched the electric button and 
the work was done. The little maid could not cure Naaman of his 
leprosy, but she sent him to the prophet who could heal him. 



We Have Found the Messiah. — Hiero, the King of Syracuse, set 
the great mathematician Archimedes to work on what is called the 
Crown Problem, namely to ascertain whether a crown made for him 
ostensibly of gold, was or was not alloyed with baser metal, and if it 
was, with how much. Archimedes was puzzled till one day as he was 
stepping into a bath, and observed the water running over, it occurred 
to him that the excess of bulk occasioned by the intro- 
duction of alloy could be measured by putting the crown Eureka, 
and an equal weight of gold separately into a vessel filled 
with water, and observing the difference of overflow." He was so over- 
joyed when this happy thought struck him, that without waiting to put 
on his clothes he ran nude through the streets to his home, shouting 
Eureka. Eureka. cvpnKa. "I have found it, I have found it." This 
word has been adopted as the motto of the state of California in 
allusion to the discovery of gold there. 

Library.— Encyclopedia Brit." Archimedes," and Century Dictionary, 
"Eureka," and "Crown Problem." 



1:42 ST. JOHN 39 



42. And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld 
him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jonah : thou shalt be 
called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone. 



A. I>. 27. 

February. 

Simon 

Peter 

Becomes a 

Disciple. 

(The 
Tliird.) 



42. Simon. — Shalt be Called Cephas, — a Stoxe, 
a Rock. — " Although in the West we are less likely 
to have different forms of our names for different 
languages, the thing is not unheard of. Some of 
the German Schneiders, settling in the United States, have translated 
their name boldly into English as Taylor. So, Loewenstein is apt to 
become Livingstone, by trans-phonetics rather than by 
translation. National names change quite freely. The Changes 
German, for instance, is a "Deutseher" at home, an of Names. 
1 ' Allemandais " in France, a "German" in England and 
the United States, and a " Nimsawi " among the Arabs." — Sunday 
School Times. 



Seeing Peter the Apostle, in Slmon the Fisherman. — "As the 
eye of the cunning lapidary detects in the rugged pebble, 
just digged from the mine, the polished diamond that shall The Dia- 
sparkle in the diadem of a king ; or as the sculptor in the mondinthe 
rough block of marble, newly hewn from the quarry, be- Pebble, 
holds the statue of perfect grace and beauty which is latent 
there, and waiting but the touch of his hand, — so he who sees all, and 
the end from the beginning, sees of tentimes greater wonders than these. 
He sees the saint in the sinner, the saint that shall be in 
the sinner that is ; the wheat in the tare." — Abp. Trench. The Statue 
So Jesus saw Peter the rock, in Simon the fisherman ; in the 
Matthew the writer of the Gospel, in the publican; Paul the Rock, 
apostle, in Saul the persecutor. 

So Michael Angelo saw a marble angel in the neglected block. 

" Thus with somewhat of the seer 
Must the moral pioneer 
From the future borrow ; 

Clothe the waste with dreams of grain, 
And on the midnight sky of rain 
Paint the golden morrow." 

— Whittier's Barclay of Ury. 



Simon Becomes Peter. — "In a gallery in Europe there hang side by 
side Rembrandt's first picture, a simple sketch, imperfect and faulty ; 
— and his great masterpiece, which all men admire. So in the two 



40 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 1:42 

names, Simon and Peter, we have first the rude fisherman who came 
to Jesus that day ; and second the man as he became during the years 
when the friendship of Jesus had enriched his life." — J. R. Miller. 



Note the transformation of character through the knowledge and 
service of Jesus. Simon, the simple fisherman, "hot-headed, rash, 
impulsive, whose uncertainty and hastiness brought him and his into 
many troubles," became Peter the Apostle, the rock, firm and strong. 

Recall. — How Jacob, the supplanter, became Israel, a Prince with 
God. 



Alexander the Great said to a soldier named Alexander, but proved a 
coward, that he must either change his character or his name. 



Power Through Prophetic Hope. — " This greeting yields its 
meaning when we recall the character of the person addressed. Simon 
was hot-headed, impulsive, rash, unstable. When his name was men- 
tioned on the Lake of Galilee, there arose before the mind a man of 
generous nature, frank and good-hearted, but a man whose uncertainty 
and hastiness had brought him and his into many troubles. 

" What must the thoughts of such a man have been when he was told 
that the Messiah was present, and that the Messianic Kingdom was 
standing with open gates? Must he not have felt that this might con- 
cern others, — decent, steady men like Andrew, but not himself ? Must 
he not have felt that instead of being a strength to the new Kingdom, 
he would prove a weakness. Coming in this mood he is greeted with 
words which seemed to say to him, I know the character identified with 
the name ' Simon, son of John ; ' I know all you fear ; I know how you 
wish you were a man like Andrew, and could offer yourself as a ser- 
viceable subject of the new Kingdom. But no, thou art Simon ; noth- 
ing can change that, and such as you are you are welcome ; but thou 
shalt be called Rock, Peter." 

" The men standing ai-ound, and knowing Simon well, might turn 
away to hide a smile ; but Simon knew the Lord had found him, and 
uttered the very word which could bind him forever to Him. Simon 
became Peter, a new man." — Marcus Bods, D. D. 



There is a mighty power in the revelation to us of the possibilities of 
our lives. 



Fear not to build thine eyrie in the heights, 

Bright with celestial day, 
And trust thyself unto thine inmost soul 



1:43-46 ST. JOHN 41 



A. ». 27. 

February. 

Call of 

Pliilip. 

(Fourth 

IHsciple.) 



43. *y The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, 
and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me. 

44. Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and 
Peter. 

45. Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have 
found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did 
write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. 

46. And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing 
come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. 

In simple faith, alway ; 
And God shall make divinely real 
The highest forms of thine ideal." 

Library. — Mrs. Margaret Preston' s Poems, "The Ideal and the Real. 



Follow (aKo\ov>0€i) . — " Often used in the New Testament with the 
special sense of following as a disciple or partisan. See Matt. iv. 20, 
22; ix. 9; Mark i. 18; John viii. 12. Also with the meaning of cleav- 
ing steadfastly to one and conforming to his example. It appears in 
the noun acolyte, or acolyth, or acolythist, a church-servant ranking 
next below a subdeacon, whose duty it was to trim the lamps, light the 
church, prepare the sacramental elements, etc. Under the Byzantine 
emperors the captain of the emperor's body-guard was called Acolouthos, 
or the Follower." — M. R. Vincent, Word Studies. 

Library. — See Scott's Count Robert of Paris. 



46. Can Any Good Thing Come Out of Nazareth. — " There is Little 
reason for charging special moral turpitude against the people of 
Nazareth. The Judasan simply looked down upon Nazareth as the 
urbane inhabitant of a great city is supposed to look down upon a back- 
woods settlement. The inhabitants of a college town in the East would 
hardly turn to the new settlement of Nosuchplace, in Blank Territory, 
for a teacher of culture. That was the way the Judaean felt with 
regard to Nazareth." — S. S. Times. 



Note how many of the greatest men have come from parents and 
places, whence you would least expect them. 



Come And See. — Do not stop to theorize, but inquire into the facts. 
The religion of Jesus is not a mere theory ; it is proved abundan Dly by 



42 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS I : 43-46 

facts. We would convince men of its truth by what it has done. The 
lives that have been made better, the fact that it does change for good 
all those who receive it into their hearts, that wherever it enters a com- 
numity or a nation it elevates them — these are the convincing proofs: 

First — Looking. — See what Christ has done for others. Compare 
Christian lands with all others. Take two maps; color one according 
to the morals, the happiness, the blessings, of the different peoples, 
making the best white, and darkening the shades as the picture grows 
darker. Then take the other map, and color it according to the preva- 
lence and purity of its Christianity, and the two maps will agree. 
Where ever is the most Christianity, there is the most of every good for 
man. Look at the effect of conversion to Christ on your friends and 
neighbors. 

Library. — Missions and Science — The Ely volume of the A. B. C. 
F. M , showing the effects of Christianity. Gesta Christi, by Rev. Dr. 
Bruce. Dr. Dennis' Missions and Social Science. 

The Parliament of religions gives the theories of other religions, 
but the true comparison would be a Parliament of Nations showing 
what each religion has done, and its effects upon the people under its 
influence. 

Second — Inquiring. — Learn the experience of others. Hear their 
testimony as to what Christ has done for their souls. It may seem the 
utterance of excited feeling, and yet, if, like the queen of Sheba, you 
ever experience the same, you will declare that the half has not been 
told. 

Third — Experiencing. — Only by going to Christ, and experiencing 
for ourselves, is it possible to understand the fulness of blessing, the 
glory and peace of the soul that loves Him with all the heart. This 
test never fails. 

Library. — Nelson on Infidelity, shows how almost universal is the 
acceptance of the Bible by those who have thoroughly investigated; and 
how its acceptance is universal by those who experience its truths. 



" Experience settles most conclusively the question of whether he is 
the Christ or not. Objections will rattle harmless, like bullets on iron 
plates, against a faith which can adduce the blessed results of faith as 
its vindication. It would take a good deal of argument to persuade the 
blind man that he was wrong in saying ' Once I was blind, now I 
see.' " — McLaren. 



Reference. — See under v. 39, " Near-sighted spectacles. 



I : 47, 48 ST. JOHN 43 



47. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and saith of him, 
Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! 

48. Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? 
Jesus auswered and said unto him, Before that Philip called 
thee, when thou wast under the fia; tree, I saw thee. 



A. ». 27. 

Februar 
Nathanael. 
(The Fifth 
Disciple.) 



The Orchard. — Mr. Spurgeon tells a story of a man 
who was invited to come into an orchard and eat some of the fruit. He 
refused, for he said that he had picked up some of the apples by the 
roadside that fell from those trees, and they were poor and bitter. The 
owner replied that those trees were placed there on purpose, so that the 
boys would not be attracted into the orchard to steal. But come inside, 
and there the apples are delicious. So it is with those who taste only 
the outside of Christianity, its self-denials, its labors, its restrictions, 
but do not experience its real blessings. 



47. No Guile (86\os\ Properly, a bait for fish, and related at the 
root to 8e\€d£a>, to catch with a bait, or beguile. See on beguiling, 2 
Pet. ii. 14. The true Israelite would be the true child of Israel after he 
had ceased to be the supplanter. — Vincent. Hence he was without 
deceit, or bad purposes hidden under plausible appearances; simple, 
straightforward. 



True sincerity, un blinded by prejudice, undistorted by selfishness, 
is the condition of soul, to which are given the largest and best truths 
and the richest spiritual blessings. It is like the windows of clearest and 
purest glass through which the light and visions of all that is with- 
out, come undimmed and undistorted. Guile and prejudice are like 
the twisted spots in the glass, like frostwork or cobwebs on the 
windows. 



Library. — With this interview compare the opening scene in 
Goethe's Torquato Tasso. Act 1. Scene 1, where the princess listens 
gladly: 

" When of an able man, the thought profound 
Developed skilfully with subtle tact, 
Doth not perplex and dazzle, but instruct " 



44 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS I 149-5 1 

49. Nathauael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; 
thou art the King of Israel. 

50. Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee 
under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. 

51. And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see 
heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. 

50. Thou Shalt See Greater Things than These —The reward 
of believing is larger views of God and truth. Those that seek to know 
and do God's will shall see far greater things than the past has known — 
higher experiences, more abundant fruits of the Spirit, more souls con- 
verted, larger triumphs of the gospel. Every step upward widens the 
prospect. Every experience prepares the soul for fuller experiences. 
All training in music, in art, in knowledge, fits the mind for new 
visions and sweeter experiences. 



51. The Angels of God Ascending and Descending. — Referring 
to Jacob's dream at Bethel. Jesus is the reality of which Jacob but 
dreamed in his ladder from earth to heaven. Through him ascend 
prayers, desires, worship, love to God; and through him descend from 
God, answers to prayer, new life, help in daily duties, wisdom, truth, 
the Holy Spirit, the love of God. He leads upward through a shining 
way to heaven and God. 



That philosopher was a wise man, who, boasting of his garden where 
he walked and thought, was found by his friends in a very small enclos" 
ure. "Is this your boasted garden — this narrow place?" they said. 
" Yes," replied he, "it is not very long, or very broad, but, oh, it is 
wondrous high!" 



Through Different Ways. — "We have here the account of the 
way in which five disciples were brought to receive Christ. All came 
into personal connection with Him, but each in a way of his own, suit- 
able to his own state of mind and feeling. The finding of the one was 
not the finding of the other. For John and Andrew there was the talk 
with Jesus through the hours of that never-to-be-forgotten evening- 
For Simon — the heart-searching word, convincing him he was known, 
and his future read off. For Philip — a peremptory command; and for 
Nathanael — a gracious courtesy disarming him of prejudice, assuring 
him of a perfect sympathy in the breast of the Lord. Thus there are 
those who seek Christ, those who are brought by others to Christ, those 
whom Christ seeks for Himself, those who come without doubts, and 
those who come with doubts. Each soul must deal with Christ for 
himself." 



II : I, 2 



ST. JOHN 



45 



CHAPTER II. 



CANA, THE MIRACLE IN THE HOME. 



1. And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee ; 
and the mother of Jesus was there: 

2. And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the 
marriage. 

Pictures. — Marriage at Cana, by Paul Veronese 
(one at Paris, another at Dresden), G. Dore, by Giotto 
(Arena Chapel, Padua), by Tintoretto, (Salute, Venice). , 



A. ». 27. 

Feb. or March. 
CANA OF 
GALILEE. 

FIRST YEAR OF 

JESUS' MINISTRY. 

THE YEAR OF 

BEGINNINGS. 

The First 

Miracle. 

Water 

Changed 

to Wine. 



Value of this Miracle. — " From a very early 
period the church has recognized the importance 
and significance of the miracle. Of the fifty-two marble sar- 
cophagi originally found in the catacombs of Rome, and now pre- 
served in the Museum of St. John Lateran, no less than sixteen 
have carved upon them a rude representation of Jesus touching 
with a rod two, three, four, five or six, water-pots standing on the 
ground — the number varying according to the skill of the 
artist, or the space at his disposal. In the frescoes and Pictures 
mosaics of numerous churches and consecrated buildings, of this 
the incident has been depicted in a great variety of ways ; Miracle, 
and Tintoretto exhausted his genius in giving expression to 
its wonderful beauty, in his great picture in the church of Santa Maria 
della Salute in Venice. It is the ' gate beautiful ' by which one enters 
the sacred temple of Divine truth. It is the illuminated initial which 
represents, in a pictorial form, the nature and design of the kingdom 
of heaven as revealed unto men. It is an acted parable of the whole 
gospel ; a type and image of all the work of Jesus, opening up a vista 
of light far into the ways of God. The miracle of Cana comes into 
the midst of the previous natural life of Jesus like a star out of the 
blue profound, like a well out of the dry mountain side, like a rare, 
unknown flower appearing among the common indigenous plants of a 
spot. It gave to the stream of the world's course a new motion and a 
new direction, without which it would have become a stagnant bog — 
a dead sea." — .Rev. U. MacMUlqn. D. D. 



46 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS II : I 



2. Jesus was Called to the Marriage. — The marriage feast which 
often continues several days, with feasting, telling tales and riddles and 
other amusements. There is as much display as possible, with swing- 
ing lamps and flying flags in the neighboring streets. 

The fact that Jesus necessarily for his mission remained unmarried 
has led many to imagine that celibacy was the highest and purest mode 
of life, and convents and nunneries were holier than 
homes. Plato in his Model Republic (Bk. V.) presents as an Jesus and 
ideal that " the wives of these guardians are to be common, the Home, 
and their children also common, and no parent is to know 
his own child, nor any child his parent. The children were to be 
brought up by the state with no family life. But Jesus gave his high- 
est sanction to marriage and the family, by ivorking His first miracle in 
a home, and at the making of another home. Not friendship, but the 
love of husband and wife, of parents and children, is the master 
passion, the highest earthly ideal of love ; for at its best it is the per- 
fection of friendship. A company of men once asked each other which 
of their acquaintances they would choose if they had to live six months 
on a desolate island with only one companion. Every true husband and 
wife should be able to stand that test. Marriage expresses 
intimate fellowship with God, the mutual love and delight Marriage 
in one another, the protecting care on the one hand and per- as a Type, 
feet trust on the other, the unity of purpose, of character, 
of hope, the abiding forever in one perfect home, all of which belong 
to the union of Christ with believers (Isa. 61 : 10 ; 62: 5 ; Hos. 2 : 19 ; 
Matt. 9 : 15 ; John 3 : 29 ; Eph. 5 : 31, 32). 



Why Jesus Emphasized the Home. — The homes of a country make 
it what it is. The centre of power for building up a country in virtue, 
religion and prosperity, lies in the home. The battle of Science has for 
its central point, its Waterloo, the origin of life : the religious warfare 
centers around the Cross, the Alcyone of all religious forces ; the moral 
battle is about the Home. Mrs. Hunt says that the Star of Bethlehem 
for temperance stands over the schoolhouse. The Star of Bethlehem 
for morals and religion stands over the Home. The Home is the place 
nearest Paradise on earth, a hint of the Eden of the past, and a 
prophecy of Paradise regained. 



Home is a University, a Training School, a Sunday School, all in 
one. Home is a large part of the real " University exten- 
sion " movement. There is something in it, if rightly used, Home a 
to train every faculty of the mind, and be a lesson book School of 
for every science, — chemistry, biology, bacteriology, mental Morals. 



II: I, 2 ST. JOHN 47 



science, moral science, pedagogy, political economy, 
mathematics, art, music and every other science. 

Thus the daily home duties are one of the very best 
schools for building up a noble character. There is 
something in the home to train each virtue and each 
grace. On this tree may grow every fruit of the 
Spirit. Home does not narrow, it broadens. What 
nobler work is there than training immortal souls for 
immortal life? 



A. D. 27. 

Feb. or March. 
CAXA OF 
GALILEE. 

FIRST YEAR OF 

JESCS' MINISTRY. 

THE YEAR OF 

BEGINNINGS. 

The First 

^Iiracle. 

Water 

Changed 

to Wine. 



Garden of the Hesperides. — According to the 
Greek legend, as interpreted by Ruskin, when 
Jupiter, the type of ruling, manly power, was 
married to Juno, the goddess of the household, Earth, came to the 
wedding and brought as a wedding present a branch full of golden 
apples, which Juno sent to the Garden of the Hesperides, 
the Greek paradise far over the western sea. in order that A Type 
the most precious fruit should grow in the loveliest garden of Home, 
of the world. Over these golden apples she placed as guard 
the four daughters of Atlas, who sustained the world, and of Hesperis, 
after whom the daughters and the garden were named. These maidens 
were named ^-Egle, Brightness : Erytheia. Blushing, Modesty ; Hestia. the 
Spirit of the Hearth ; and Arethusa, Ministering. The Hesperides gar- 
den of modern times is the Home. 



Home and Crime. — (1.) Mr. Kingsmill, in his Prisons and Prisoners, 
gives the result of his inquiries as to the origin of the criminal courses 
of a large number of prisoners. Summing them up, we find that at 
least four out of five had their origin in bad homes, or the want of 
homes. (2.) The Superintendent of the Providence, E. I., 
Reform School said that such was the case with nine-tenths Testimony 
of those who were sent to his institution. (3.) Col. Gardner from Re- 
Tufts for ten years had the oversight of all the youth in formatories. 
Massachusetts, under 17, who were sentenced by the courts. 
Of the 20,000 thus brought under his charge, he stated to me that not 
more than one-tenth had any homes that could be called homes. (4.) 
For 20 years I have kept careful account of the family influences around 
those who united with the churches under my charge ; and I find that 
one or both parents of seven- eighths were Christians. 



The Persian Juftak:. —We are told of the Persian bird Juftak. which 
has only one wing. On the wingless side the male bird has a hook, and 



48 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 11:1,2 

the female a ring. When thus fastened together, and only when fast- 
ened together, can they fly. The human race is that Persian bird, the 
Juftak. When man and woman unite, they may soar sky- 
ward, scorning the ground. — Gail Hamilton. The tendency Two or 
of modern times is for the men and boys to feel that they More to 
have little responsibility for the happiness and culture of Make a 
the home. But they are responsible, and should do their Home. 
very best to make the home the happiest place in the world. 
Both influences are needful. Both together keep the home results from 
being one-sided. Husband and wife are different, so that each may sup- 
plement the other, so that each may look up to the other as the better 
one, because each is superior in some things. 



If Christ Came to Our Home. — See on 12: 1. 



Jesus in the Home. — (1) Note His life as a youth in His own home. 
Luke 2: 39, 40, 51, 52. (2) Note His life in other homes — of Matthew, 
Mat. 9:9-13; of Zaccheus, Luke 19:1-10 ; of a ruler of the Pharisees, 
Luke 14: 1 ; at Bethany, John 11: 1-5 ; 12: 1-3. 



Jesus in Social Life. — This picture of Jesus at a wedding feast, and 
at the houses of Publicans, of Pharisees, of loved friends at Bethany, 
brings Him very near to us, as sharing our human feelings, our enjoy- 
ments as well as our sorrows. 



The Marriage Feast. — The feast, which celebrates the marriage, 
expresses the abundance, the joyousness, the social pleas- 
ures, the satisfaction of every want, the variety, "the Social Life 
feast of reason and the flow of soul," found in the a Type of 
religious life (Isa. 25: 6 ; 65: 13); that life is not all " a grind- the 
ing at the mill," a time of toil and sacrifice, but also of Spiritual, 
spiritual refreshments, of joys unspeakable, of exquisite 
satisfaction and rest. Even the hard duties are sweet because inspired 
by love; they are the alabaster boxes of precious ointment poured out 
upon the loved one. 



Jesus loves to have us happy, and approves of pure pleasures in their 
place, and makes them more delightful by His presence; and His presence 
will keep us from wrong words or deeds. 



Where to Find Saints. — We often look in the wrong places to find 
saints and heroes and martyrs. They may sometimes, indeed, be founcl 



II : I, 2 ST. JOHN 49 

in hermits' cells, oftener on beds of sickness ; but for 
the most part they are men and women burdened 
with cares, pressed with daily labors, thronging the 
streets of traffic, busy with a thousand duties, cruci- 
fied on invisible crosses, winning battles on the unseen 
battlefields of the heart. They are men and women 
in useful social life, rejoicing in God and goodness, 
using God's good gifts as not abusing them. 



A. D.27. 

Feb. or March. 
CANA OF 
GALILEE. 

FIRST YEAR OF 

JESUS' MINISTRY. 

THE YEAR OF 

BEGINNINGS. 

The First 

Miracle. 

Water 

We can live this present life in better health, in to'wfii* 

fuller strength, in more abundant labors through a 
joyous plenty and social eating together. It removes ^ — * 

some of the friction of living. We cannot think of 
heaven as a place of famine. But all this should be universally diffused, 
wisely used, like the feasts and social life of heaven, of which these 
should be types, and to which they should be invitations, and all made 
subservient to the higher life. The soul that is starving in its longing?, 
its tastes, its love of art, music, beauty, information, worship, love, 
never can do its best work for God or man. 



Lamps in the Tomb of Terentia. — Jeremy Taylor describes some 
lamps in the touib of Terentia as burning brightly in the darkness of the 
tomb, but going out when brought forth into the light, as a type of 
Christians, whose piety burns brightly in the darkness of persecution 
and trouble, but goes out in the light of prosperity. Mr. Rogers, com- 
menting on this, says that it by no means follows that all darkness is 
good for the Christians, for "then the bright lamps of which Taylor 
speaks would irradiate only a tomb." 



Social Feasts a School of Self-Denial. — The feast itself is a giv- 
ing, especially if made to those who need it as Christ suggests. It 
is full of fellowship, of outpouring, of generosity. There is an oppor- 
tunity for curbing the appetite ; of self-restraint from that which is 
harmful in kind or in amount, to ourselves or others ; of imparting to 
those less fortunate, of incitement to sending spiritual food to starving 
souls. 



Social Life as an Instrument. —Note how Jesus used social life as 
a means of preaching the gospel and helping men. It brings the 
spiritual leaven in contact with the meal that should be leavened. 
4 



50 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS II: 3 -8 

3. And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have 
no wine. 

4. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not 
yet come. 

5. His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. 

6. And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the puri- 
fying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. 

7. Jesus saith unto them, fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them 
up to the brim. 

8. And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the 
feast. And they bare it. 

8. The Mother of Jesus Saith to Him. — " Such frankness of com- 
munication of small needs to Jesus is the natural result of familiar fel- 
lowship with Him. It is the privilege of love to hear and to speak of 
all trifles that concern the beloved. If we were on more 
intimate terms with Jesus, instinct would set us to tell Him Telling 
everything that affected us, whether the blows that fell on Small 
us were crushing like those of a steam-hammer at full Troubles 
power, or slight like the tap of the same machine which to Jesus, 
will scarcely crack a nut. If a worry is too small to speak 
of to Christ, it is not large enough to perturb us. But frankness must 
not dictate to Him what to do. If we trust His love and wisdom, we 
shall be content with having told Him the symptoms of our ailment. 
The patient does not tell the doctor what treatment to adopt." — Dr. 
McLaren. 



If God cares for sparrows, and the grass of the field, for the atoms 
and molecules of creation, how much more will He care for you, even 
you " of little faith." 

4. Woman, -yuvai.— This in the original conveys no thought of disre- 
spect, but was a highly respectful and affectionate mode of address, as 
when we would say "lady." Jesus used it in his tender interview on 
the cross. The Emperor Augustus used it in addressing Egypt's charm- 
ing Queen Cleopatra. "Take courage, O woman, and keep a good 
heart." In the Iliad (xxiv. :30) King Priam uses it in speaking to 
Hecuba, his queen. 

8. Six Waterpots — Filled Them to the Brim. — " It is God's way 
to pour out his bounty, not only in abundance, but in superabundance. 
We may well believe that He created not barely sufficient for the hour, 
but a superabundance which remained after the departure of the 



11:9. 



ST. JOHN 



51 



9. When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was 
made wine, and knew not whence it was, (but the servants 
which drew the water knew,) the governor of the feast called 
the bridegroom, 

10. And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth 
set forth good wine ; and when men have well drunk, then 
that which is worse; but thou hast kept the good wine until 
now. 

guests." — Abbott. Note how it is with God's gifts of 
sunshine, of electricity, of seeds and flowers. Mr. 
Ruskin says that 3-ou can tell which are the most 
beautiful forms by their greater abundance. 



A. D. 27. 

Feb. or March. 

CANA OF 

GALILEE. 

first year of 

jests' ministry. 

the year of 

beginnings. 

The First 

Miracle. 

Water 
Changed 
to Wine. 



Draw Out Now. — ; ' What ! art thou all day filling thy heart with 
earth, and dost thou look to draw heaven thence at night ? " — Gurnall. 



9. Water That was Made Wine. — While no one can prove that 
the wine which Christ made was wholly unfermented, it is equally cer- 
tain that no one can prove that it had intoxicating qualities. It may 
have been the ideal wine, the delicious, healthful juice of the grape 
fresh from the vines, just as God is making it now every autumn. It 
is interesting to note that in all references to the Lord's Supper, the word 
" wine" is not once used in the New Testament in connection with it, 
but always " the cup" or "fruit of the vine," so that that divine insti- 
tution never lays a feather's weight in favor of intoxicating wine. 



The modest water touched with grace Divine, 
Confessed its God, and blushed itself to wine." 



Unde rubor vestris, et non sua purpura, lymphis ? 

Quse rosa mirantes tam nova mutat aquas ? 
Numen, Convivge, praesens agnoscite Numen : 

Lympha pudica Deum vidit, et erubuit." 

— Epigramatica Sacra, 1634. 



" Whence the redness, and the purple not its own, in your clear water? 
What rose so new transforms the wondering waters? 
Deity, O guests, recognize the deity present : 
The conscious water saw its God and blushed." 



52 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 11:9,10 

The First Miracle a Type of Christ's Miraculous Works. — " The 
change of water into the luscious juice of the grape (far more than into 
fermented wine) is the sign and symbol of all which Christ is evermore 
doing in the world, ennobling all that He touches, making saints out of 
sinners, angels out of men, and, in the end, heaven out of earth, — a 
new paradise of God out of the old wilderness of the world. For the 
prophecy of the world's regeneration, of the day in which His disciples 
shall drink of the fruit of the vine new in His kingdom, is eminently 
here." — Trench. " With His Divine alchemy He turns common things 
into radiant mysteries ; yea, every meal into a eucharist, and the jaws 
of the sepulchre into an outgoing gate." — Macdonald. 



God's Transformations in Nature. — Nature is full of symbols 
of this transforming work of the gospels. Some of our most beau- 
tiful flowers have been developed from common weeds. The most 
luscious apples are the transformed offspring of the common crab-apple. 
The diamond is transformed charcoal. Whitest paper fit for a queen's 
message or poet's inspiration is made from beggar's rags. Roses grow 
out of the vile ground. Out of the common things of life, its duties 
and cares, God is making the gold of heaven ; out of trials and disci- 
pline, crowns of righteousness ; out of daily joys and burdens, the songs 
and harps of angels. 



The Miracle at Cana. — 



Dear Friend, whose presence in the house, 
Whose gracious word benign, 

Could once at Cana's wedding-feast 
Turn water into wine, — 

Come, visit us, and when dull work 

Grows weary line on line, 
Revive our souls, and make us see 

Life's water glow as wine. 

Gay mirth shall deepen into joy, 
Earth's hopes shall glow divine, 

When Jesus visits us, to turn 
Life's water into wine. 

The social talk, the evening fire, 
The homely household shrine, 



11:9, io 



ST. JOHN 



53 



Shall glow with angels' visits, when 
The Lord pours out the wine. 

For when self-seeking turns to love 
Which knows not mine and thine, 

The miracle again is wrought, 
And water changed to wine." 

— James Freeman Clark, D D. 



Transformation, Not Creation. — 
wine of water ; not wine without water, 



Jesus made 



A. D. 27. 

Feb. or March. 
CANA OF 
GALILEE. 

FIRST YEAR OF 

JESUS' MINISTRY. 

THE YEAR OF 

BEGINNINGS. 

Tlie First 
Miracle. 

Water 
Changed 
to Wine. 



Taper in 
Oxygen. 

When 



" The commonest joys, if only they are not foul and sinful, are capable 
of this transformation. If we bring them to Jesus, and are 
' glad in the Lord,' He will ennoble them, and they will tend 
to enoble us. A taper plunged into a jar of oxygen blazes 
more brightly. Without Christ's presence, earth's joys at 
their best and brightest are like some fair landscape in shadow. 
He comes to hallow them, — as He always does when He is 
invited, — they are like the same scene when the sun blazes Sunshine 
out on it, flashes from every bend of the rippling river, on the 
brings beauty into shady corners, opens the flowers, and Landscape, 
sets all the birds singing in the sky. Joys on which He can 
let the sunshine of His smile fall will be bettered and prolonged thereby; 
joys on which He cannot, are not for His servants to meddle with. If 
we cannot make the sign of the cross over our mirth, and ask Him 
to bless it, we had better be sorrowful than glad. If we keep Him out 
of our mirth, ' the end of that mirth is heaviness,' however jubilant 
may be its beginning. 

"But Christ can not only change the water of human joy into the wine 
of heavenly gladness, but He can drop an elixir into the cups 
of sorrow, and change them into cups of blessing and salva- 
tion. One drop of that potent influence can sweeten the 
bitterest draught, even though many a tear has fallen into 
it. He can make Marah into Elim, and can calm sorrow 
into a willing acquiescence not wholly unlike happiness. 
Jesus will repeat ■ this beginning of miracles ' in every sad heart that 
trusts to him." — A. McLaren, in Sunday School Times. 



Elixir of 
Joy in 
Cup of 
Sorrow. 



10. Thou Hast Kept the Good Wine Until Now. —The world 
gives the best first, but at last " it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like 
an adder." Jesus gives His best things last. The farther we go with 



54 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS II : 1 1 



11. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth 
His glory ; and His disciples believed on him. 

Him, the greater the good, the deeper the joy. More especially will 
this be so when we come into the heavenly life. There is always "more 
to follow." 

"The best is yet to be, 
The last of life, for which the first was planned." 



Christ's Giving and the World's Contrasted. — " Every sin smiles 
in the first address, and carries light in the face and honey in the lip ; 
but when we ' have well drunk,'' then comes ' that which is worse," a 
whip with six strings, fears and terrors of conscience, and shame and 
displeasure, and a caitiff disposition, and diffidence in the day of death. 
Jesus keeps the best wine to the last, not only because of the direct 
reservation of the highest joys till the nearer approaches of glory, but 
also because our relishes are higher after a long friction than at the 
first essays, such being the nature of grace that it increases in relish as 
it does in friction." — Jeremy Taylor. 



The Tragedy of the Life of Sin and crime, especially of the drunk- 
ard. " At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder. 
At the first, it sparkles and cheers; at the last, it poisons and maddens. At 
first, it excites mirth and song; at the last, it produces sorrow and curses. 
At the first, it is an affair of good feeling and fellowship; at the last, 
it is an affair of feuds, fighting, and murder. At the first, it is a cup 
of exhilaration in the hands of thoughtless youth; at the last, it is a 
1 cup of fearful trembling in the hand of an offended God. ' At the 
first, there is a joyful anticipation of good times to come; at the last, 
there is ' fearful looking for of judgment and of fiery indignation which 
shall devour the adversaries.' At the first, it is the wine of pleasant 
fellowship; at the last, it is the ' wine of the wrath of Almighty God, 
poured out without mixture.' At the first, it is the agreeable excite- 
ment of an evening; at the last, it is the long-drawn agony of an end- 
less perdition. At the first, it is the grateful stimulus of an hour; at the 
last, it is the ' worm that never dies, and the fire that never shall be 
quenched.' " — Anon. 

Contrast.— " Jesus keeps the best for the end. Time cannot cloy 
His gifts, but advancing years make them more precious and necessary. 
In His service, ' better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.' 
Note the description in Revelation, chs. 21, 22, as the picture of what 
Jesus does at last for all His people." 



A.». 27. 

Feb. or March. 
CANA OF 
GALILEE. 

FIRST YEAR OF 

JESUS' MINISTRY. 

THE YEAR OF 

BEGINNINGS. 

The First 

Miracle. 

Water 

Changed 

to Wine. 



II: II ST. JOHN 55 

The Unearned Increase. — "When real estate is ►J* <%> 

conveyed from one person to another, the conveyance 
includes not only the ownership of the property in 
question, but also the right to whatever increase in 
value may come to it after its purchase. It some- 
times happens, also, that the unearned increase is the 
principal part of a bargain." All life is unearned 
increase. We think so much of our planting and 
watering that we sometimes forget that God gives the 
increase. His gifts to the planted seed are an hundred 
fold more than the seed. — Condensed from H. C. 
Trumbull, D. D. •* 

11. This Beginning of Miracles (<rr\\i.d<av). — Signs. Four names 
for miracles are employed in the Gospels : 1. Dunameis, powers, might 
Luke (10 :13; 19 : 37), translated miracles in Mark 9 :39 and elsewhere. 
These are the manifestations of Divine power, deeds which 
only God can do. 2. Terata, ivonders (Mark 13 : 23, etc.). The Four 
Marvelous deeds exciting wonder and calling attention to Names 
God as their doer. 3. Sameia, signs ; the usual word in of Miracles. 
John, sometimes translated miracles in the common version. 
These are the signs or evidences of Jesus' Divine mission, and of the 
truth He taught, and of the nature of Go I. 4. Erga, works (John 7 : 3, 
21). The natural acts and products of His being, wrought by His own 
Divine power. Each miracle of Christ has all four of these 
characteristics. 



What is a Miracle ? — A miracle is the personal intervention of God 
by His will into the chain of cause and effect in nature. It is not 
"breaking of the laws of nature," nor " the suspension of the laws of 
nature," nor any change in the laws of nature, but simply God's doing 
with His infinite power the same quality of action, though 
vastly greater in degree, that we do every hour when we Definition 
exert our personal will amid the forces of nature. I lift up of Miracle, 
a book. The act is a new personal force, which marks the 
power of my will. It breaks no law of nature, suspends none. It is the 
same when God, by His infinite power, lifts up a mountain or raises 
the dead. It is His personal will touching nature and showing that 
God Himself is there. Just as a friend can grant a favor, or the owner 
of a factory stop a part of the machinery to rescue a child caught in the 
wheels. 



Miracles as Signs. — Every miracle of Christ was worthy of Him 
and of God. They were signs (1) of His divine nature. They were as 



56 SUCGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS II: II 

natural to Him as the Son of God, as our common acts are' to us. 
2. They were signs of His mission as a transforming power. 3. They 
were signs of His work as undoing the evil which sin and Satan had 
brought into the world. 4. They were signs of His good will to men, 
His desire and His power to help men under all circumstances. 5. They 
were signs of His spiritual teaching. Each miracle was an acted par- 
able. 6. They were signs of the character and nature of God. 7. They 
were signs that God is in all the operations of nature, as Franklin's kite 
and the lightning flash are signs of the electricity that pervades nature, 
or a falling apple is a sign of the law of gravitation. 



The Flag as a Sign. — " The transformation of water into wine is the 
finger post which points us to a far off land. It is the Union Jack, a 
piece of painted calico, but which expresses an invisible and loved 
abstraction, our country; the homeland of the soul." — W. W. Peyton, 
Memorabilia of Jesus. 



This Miracle Shows the Presence of God in all Nature. — There 
is plenty of evolution, both in the realm of nature and of grace, but 
God is in it all. "What you fill the vessel with, that you must draw 
out." Of itself the water can never become grapes or wine. As long ago 
as Augustine, it was said that Jesns in this miracle did rapidly what the 
God of nature does slowly every autumn. " What the clouds pour forth 
is changed into wine by the operation of the same Lord. But at the 
latter we do not marvel because it happens every year." "A dead man 
rises again; men marvel: so, many are born daily, and none marvel. 
Yet it is a matter of greater wonder for one to be who was not before, 
than for one who was, to come to life again" (Augustine). This miracle 
of Christ was a sign that all the changes and growths, all the evolutions 
of nature, are the work of God. 



Acorns Becoming Oaks. — There is a story told of an Eastern king, 
which illustrates God's work in giving growth. He was seated in a 
garden, and one of his counselors was speaking of the wonderful works 
of God. "Show me a sign," said the king, "and I shall believe/' 
" Here are four acorns," said the counselor; " will your majesty plant 
them in the ground, and then stoop down for a moment, 
and look into this clear pool of water ? " The king did so. Oriental 
"Now," said the other, "look up." The king looked up Fable, 
and saw four oak trees where he had planted the acorns. 
" Wonderful ! " he exclaimed; " this is indeed the work of God." " How 
long were you looking into the water ?" asked the counselor. "Only 
a second," said the king. ' ' Eighty years have passed as a second," said 



II: II ST. JOHN 57 

the other. The king looked at his garments; they •*■ 

were threadbare. He looked at his reflection in the a. ». 27. 

water; he had become an old man. " There is no Feb. or March. 

miracle here, then," he said angrily. " Yes," said the galileiF 

other; " it is God's work, whether he do it in eighty first year of 

years or in one second." — Sunday School Times. jesus' ministry. 

THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

Finding God in Nature. — Some men look at the Miracle. 

world as one would who should go into a factory and Water 

trace the process of cloth making by the machinery to'wiffe. 

alone, as if there was no master-mind that made the , 

machinery, and continually controlled it. Here is the 
finished cloth; what made it? The loom wove it. But the owner moved 
the loom ? No; it was moved by this band. Then he drew the band ? 
No; it was moved by a wheel. But he turned the wheel? No; it was 
turned by the water-wheel. Certainly he makes that go. No; it is 
driven by the river. And the river ? Comes from the clouds. Thus 
he traces the whole process, and does not see any human intervention. 
And yet it is all controlled by the mind of the man who stands beside him. 



Daily Marvels of Miracles. — " There is none greater to my mind 
(although not usually classed as such) than that a minute acorn should 
develop into a towering oak, or the human ovum 1.240 of an inch in 
diameter, become ultimately a being physically, morally and intellectu- 
ally worthy of its great Creator." — Richard Owen, M. D., LL. D. 



The Miracles of Nature. — Men cry out for signs, but we may see 
miracles enough every day. I read that Aaron's rod budded, and I am 
astonished. But last spring I saw a cause of greater astonishment — 
thousands of bare rods budding and blooming blossoms in the hedges. 
I saw no one do it, and yet the trees were being daily clothed with 
thicker foliage. Was not that wonderful? I read that the manna came 
down daily from heaven to the wilderness, and I am amazed. But I 
see a cause of greater amazement every year: I see your bread coming, 
not down from heaven, but up from the earth, a much more unlikely 
place, every day in the spring. — J. Cynddyllan Jones, D. D. 



Manifested Forth His Glory. —It was the shining forth of what 
was in Him, the revelation of His true nature, powder and character, as 
the flame reveals the glory of the candle, as the inner light reveals the 
marvelous beauty of the pictured window. 



58 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS II: II 

The Button, and the Columbian Exposition. — Just before the 
opening of the Columbian Exposition at Chicago, there was a simple 
button that appeared like any other electrical button, and gave no signs 
of the mighty forces it held in leash. But just after 12 o'clock President 
Cleveland pressed that button firmly, and all the marvelous hidden 
powers connected with it were manifested. "At the instant the 
drapery fell from the golden figure of the ' Republic,' backed by the 
classic peristyle, she stood forth in radiant beauty welcoming the world. 
From the electric fountains jets of water shot seventy feet into the air, 
the mist falling upon the upturned faces of the cheering crowd. But 
above their cheers came the deep thunder of the guns fired from the 
white and gold hull of the Michigan lying in the harbor. Steam 
whistles filled the air with a shrill din and the deep chiming 
of far-off bells added to the uproar. It was known in a vague 
way that the President was to press a golden key and that the electric 
communication with the machinery was to start the fair, but no one 
realized how intricate was this machinery, how infinite the ramifi- 
cations of that electric spark, until the great fountains threw up their 
geysers seventy feet into the air and the rumble and hum of wheels in 
Manufactures Building and the clatter of machinery in all parts of that 
area of a mile square or more told the story of the final consummation 
of scientific thought. In previous expositions the possibilities of elec- 
tricity have been limited to the mere starting of the engines in 
Machinery Hall, but in this it made a thousand servants do its bidding, 
and from the great Allis engine and the mammoth fountains down to 
the minutest acts where power and touch were requisite, the magic of 
electricity did the duty of the hour. When the President closed, he turned 
to the right, touched a button, and instantly the whole scene was trans- 
formed. Flags unfurled or hurried up to the tops of their staves; 
fountains threw their clouds of white spray into the air; the steam 
yachts blew their whistles, cannon thundered, the people shouted and 
the orchestra struck up ' My Country, 'tis of Thee.' It was the scene 
of a lifetime. Nobody who beheld it can ever forget it." 



The Miracles Showing the Glory of Christ. — We should gain 
a clear conception of this peculiar, rich and abundant miraculous 
accompaniment of the Son of Man. It surrounds Him like the halos 
the old painters cause to radiate around their pictures of 
Christ; or as the space around the infant Jesus in Raphael's The Num- 
Sisline Madonna is filled with angel faces. A considerable ber of 
portion of the gospels is occupied with accounts of miracles. Christ's 
Thirty -six are described in the gospels, half of them Miracles. 



II : II 



ST. JOHN 



59 



repeated in more than one gospel; so that there are 
sixty- seven reports of distinct miracles, besides the 
large number noticed but not recorded in detail. In 
spirit, we can see accompanying Him, like the invisible 
twelve legions of angels ever ready at His call, or the 
unseen armies that surrounded Elisha at Dothan, the 
vast multitude of those whom He had healed and 
saved — those whom He had raised from the dead, 
those from whom He had cast out devils, the blind 
He had made to see, and the lame that now walked, 
the lepers He had cleansed, the deaf He had caused 
to hear, the sick He had restored to health. 



A. ». 27. 

Feb. or March. 
CAXA OF 
GALILEE. 

FIRST YEAR OF 

JESL'S' MINISTRY. 

THE YEAR OF 

BEGINNINGS. 

The First 

Miracle. 

Water 

Changed 

to Wiiie. 



Showing the Future Glory. — The miracles not only revealed 
what Christ was, but suggested the blessings and powers that yet were 
to be unfolded in His kingdom, as the telephone, telegraph, electricity, 
and the thousand inventions which bring comfort into life, are hints of 
what life yet shall be for all in the millennial days. 



And His Disciples Believed ox Hdi because they saw His true 
nature, worthy of their utmost confidence. The miracle was God's sig- 
nature to His teachings, His endorsement of Him as His messenger. 
In the Grecian story the giant Antaeus, in wrestling with Hercules, 
doubled his strength when he touched the earth. And our faith renews 
its strength when it touches the ground of fact. 



Moral Miracles. — " When a man declares to me, • I cannot believe 
in miracles,' I reply, ' I can, because I have witnessed them.' ' When and 
where?' ' On a certain street in this city is a man who was a week ago 
given over to every form of vice and brutality, and who is now a good 
citizen, an honest workman, a kind husband, a loving father, a pure, 
upright man. Surely, that is such a miracle as makes me forever 
believe in the possibility of miracles. ' " — Prof. Drummond. 



Luther's Sign in the Heavens. — "I have been struck by a fine 
instance of this discernment of God, not in miracles, but in the ordinary 
course of Providence, which occurs in the history of Martin Luther. It 
was a time when things were going very hard with him, a time when 
all the human props of the Reformation seemed ready to fall away. It 
was then that ' I saw not long since," cried Luther, "a sign in the 
heavens. Then you begin to listen for some startling prodigy. A fall- 
ing star, a pillar of fire, a blazing cross held out against the sky. Cer- 



6o SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS II : 12-17 



12. Tl After this he went down to Capernaum, he and his mother, and his breth- 
ren, and his disciples; and they continued there not many days. 

13. Tf And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, 

14. And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the 
changers of money sitting: 

15. And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the 
temple, and the sheep, and the oxen ; and poured out the changers' money, and 
overthrew the tables ; 

16. And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence ; make not my 
Father's house a house of merchandise. 

17. And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house 
hath eaten me up. 

tainly some miracle is coming. But hear what does come. ' I was 
looking out of my window at night, and beheld the stars, and the whole 
majestic vault of God, held up without my being able to see the pillars 
on which the Master had caused it to rest. Men fear that the sky may 
fall. Poor fools ! Is not God always there ?' That is all. That is his 
' sign in the heavens.' It is a miracle, but only that old miracle that 
has been shown nightly since the heavens were made." — Phillips 
Brooks' Sermons, p. 131. 



Library. — In W. C. Prime's "Along New England Roads" (Har- 
pers', 1892), "A Village Discussion," there is a capital illustration of 
the nature and possibilities of miracles. Also quoted in note to Van 
Dyke's " Gospel for an Age of Doubt," pp. 420-424. 



Pictures, Cleansing of the Temple, by F. Kirchbuck ; Castiny out 
the Money Changers, by Hoffman ; by Giotto. 



14. Found in the Temple Those That Sold Oxen, etc. — '* We must 
picture to ourselves, in addition to all the stir and bustle inseparable 
from such traffic, the wrangling and bitter words and reckless oaths 
which necessarily grew out of it with such a people as the Jews." 
"The history of Christian churches has not been altogether without 
parallels that may help us to understand how such a desecration came 
to be permitted. Those who remember the state of the great cathedral 
of London, as painted in the literature of Elizabeth and James, when 
mules and horses, laden with market produce, were led through the 
aisles of St. Paul's as a matter of everyday occurrence, and bargains 
were struck there, and burglaries planned, and servants hired, will feel 



II : 12-17 ST. JOHN 6l 

that even Christian and Protestant England has hardly •£• ■ 

the right to cast a stone at the priests and people of a. ». 27. 

Jerusalem. " — Ellicott. April 9 -i6. 

Library. — Mil man's Annals of St. Paul's, p. 286. Jerusalem 

FIRST YEAR. 

First 

Compare the use of some of the Paris churches cleansing 

during the French Revolution ; and the occupying as Temple. 

a stable, of the Refectory of the Church of Ste. 
Marie delle Grazie, Milan (on whose walls is da ^ ~~' 

Vinci's great painting of the Last Supper), by the Cavalry of Napoleon 
(contrary to his order), in 1796. The attempts at the restoration of this 
picture, " in 1726 by Bellotte, an indifferent artist, and in 1770 by Mazza, 
a wretched dauber," were almost as great a desecration. 



Changers of Money (K€p|iaTto-Tas.)— "The kindred noun Kcp^a, money, 
which occurs only in ver. 15, is from K€ipu>, to cut into bits, and means 
therefore small coin ; ' small change,' of which money changers would 
require a large supply. Hence changers of money means, strictly, deal- 
ers in small change. Matthew and Mark use KoMvPio-nfjs (see ver. 15), 
of which the meaning is substantially the same so far as regards the deal- 
ing in small coin ; but with the difference that koWvPos, the noun from 
which it is derived, and meaning a small coin, is also used to denote the 
rate of exchange, This latter word therefore gives a hint of the pre- 
mium on exchange, which John's word here does not convey." — M. R. 
Vincent in Word Studies. 



Need of Money Changing. — " The yearly temple tax of half a shekel 
due from every Jew, however poor, could not be received except in 
a native coin called the temple shekel, which was not generally current. 
Strangers, therefore, had to change their Roman, Greek or Eastern 
money, at the stalls of the money changers, to obtain the coin required. 
This trade gave ready means for fraud, which was only too com- 
mon." — Maclear. "The pilgrims brought with them the coinage of 
their own country — Syrian, Egyptian, Greek, as the case might be — 
and their money was either not current in Palestine, or, as being 
stamped with the symbols of heathen worship, could not be received 
into the treasury of the temple." 



Library. — Many readers will recall the passage in Sesame and 
Lilies, where Ruskin says : ' ' You have despised Nature ; that is to say, all 
the deep and sacred sensations of natural scenery. The French Revo- 
lutionists made stables of the cathedrals of France ; you have made 



62 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS II : \2-\y 

race-courses of the Cathedrals of the earth. Your only conception of 
pleasure is to drive railway carriages around their aisles and to eat off 
their altars." 

Library. — Two chapters in Dr. Gordon's How Christ Came to 
Church, "The Temple of God is Holy," and "Cleansing the Temple," 
showing the effect upon the church of Christ's coming. 



Cleansing Each His Own Pew. — " Dr. H., one of the skilled phy- 
sicians of old-time Philadelphia, was a member of the Society of 
Friends, though not always strictly obedient to their rules. He was 
called on at one time by a committee of the ' meeting,' who expostu- 
lated with him upon his want of conformity in some respect. He 
heard them patiently and in silence, and then said. ' Friends, I have had 
a dream which I would like to tell you.' They agreed to hear him, and 
the old gentleman proceeded: 'I dreamed that the whole Society of 
Friends were collected in our great meeting house, and attending to the 
business of the church. The subject under discussion was the filthy 
condition of the meeting house, and the means of cleansing it. Many 
plans were proposed and discussed by the prominent members, who sat 
in the upper seats ; but none seemed likely to answer the purpose, until 
one little man who occupied a seat on the floor of the house, and had 
not taken part in the discussion, got up and said, ' Friends, I think that 
if each one of us would take a broom and sweep immediately around 
his own seat, the meeting house would be cleaned. '" — H. L. Hast- 
ings, D. D. 



Cleansing Each Before His Own House. — You know the story of 
the man who, after a winter's storm, went to the city council to com- 
plain that the paths were blocked with snow, and suggested an elabor- 
ate, and finely comprehensive scheme, for its removal. " But," said a 
councillor, "there is no need for this fine scheme, let each citizen sweep 
the snow from before his own house, and the thing is done." So, per- 
haps, we may find that if each seeks to overcome the evil in the little 
world within himself, the whole will be cleansed. 



The Cobwebbed Church and the Cyclone. — A friend writes to me 
from a distant state that in his town there has for many years stood a 
church, the denomination of which I will not in this presence mention. 
But such a church has been seen in other parts of the world, He says 
that for many score of years the spiders have woven their webs in the 
corners and have partially hidden the desk itself, that the carpet remains 
Only in rags, that the seats are many of them eaten by worms and, 



II : 12-17 ST. JOHN 63 



A.». 27. 

April 9-16. 

The Passover. 

JERUSALEM. 

FIRST YEAR. 

First 

Cleansing 

of the 

Temble. 



whittled by roguish boys. One day not long since 

a Young People's Society desired to hold a meeting in 

that church. They petitioned the officers of that 

church for the privilege of having it one evening in 

the week to hold their religious services there ; but 

one of the good old officers of the church, too good to 

remain on this side of the bright gates, said that he 

was afraid that if the young people came into the 

church they would not behave reverently toward that 

sacred place. But the permission was at last granted "*" 

to that society, and they went in with their brooms and their sponges 

for the purpose of rejuvenating the old ark of a building, when io ! one 

of the officers who had consented to their presence came forward and 

said, "No, no; lay not unholy hands on this sacred place." One of 

the number said, "But, grandfather, look at that cobweb in yonder 

corner; is it not a disgrace to have a cobweb here? " " O no, you young 

people are working a dangerous revolution. Remember that our prayers 

have been strained through that cobweb for twenty-five years." 

"Such a church as that has existed in more places than one, and 
many an old father in Israel has sat down in the dust, thanking his 
stars, not his Providence, that he had the opportunity to sit in the old 
place where brooms never come, where water is never seen, and where 
spiders are not interfered with in their share in the worship. But my 
friend writes to me that in the last cyclone that swept over that part of 
the country, only a few weeks ago, the lightnings descended and struck 
that old chimney and tore it apart, and the winds lifted the roof and 
carried it over into the next yard. The rains descended upon the old 
pews, and the grace of God came down upon the old pulpit, and the 
Christian Endeavor Society now hold open air meetings ; all of the 
denominations meet under the blue sky, perhaps under the stars, I 
know not. They have torn up the old carpet, and have cleared out the 
spiders ; the old saints in Israel, — God bless them every one! — the old 
saints have departed from the ancient walls, and the new have come in 
under the light God let in by his own mighty cyclone." — Russell H. 
Conwell, D. D., LL. D. 



This Temple is Defiled by all sinful habits and customs, by errors 
of doctrine, by worldliness of spirit, by lusts of the flesh, by selfish 
ambitions, by wrong temper, by sins of every kind. These not only 
defile the temple, but keep others from worshipping and loving God. 



Christ Cleanses the Temple. — His first work in converting a soul, 
in reviving the church, is to cleanse away sin : " He is like a refiner's 



64 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS II : 12-1/ 

fire, and like fullers' soap; and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of 
silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and 
silver." (Mai. 3:2, 3). 



The Temple of the Sun. — I read once of an old Persian king who 
desired the architects of his kingdom to build a temple for the sun, and 
he offered an enormous prize to the one that should build the best 
temple. He allowed them to build at his own expense, he furnishing all 
that was necessary, and allowing them to draw the plans, and then 
execute their work. 

After some ten or fifteen years the temples were finished, and the 
king was invited to come and inspect them. The first was a mass of the 
most magnificent granite, and it was carved in the highest style of 
architecture ; the kiug admired its grandeur, and said it was very beau- 
tiful. He went on a little further, and came to the second, and lo ! this 
was made of burnished metal ; so glittering that as the king looked 
upon it, it flashed back the radiance of the sun. The king said it was a 
good deal like the sun itself. Then the third architect took him to see 
the temple which he had built, and lo ! it was a magnificent 
structure of the most transparent glass. There were no The Three 
carvings whatever, scarcely enough wood to hold the glass. Temples. 
It was all glass, open to the light of day. And the architect 
said, " Behold the sun's true temple ! not built for the purpose of reflect- 
ing the glory of man, and the genius of man, while the sun is shut out 
of the interior, but built so as to open every side for the sun himself to 
go in and pour forth his own glory and beauty in every part." He said, 
" Go within, and there you will not find a single corner but is open to 
receive the sun, and he has entered in to possess it for himself." 

The king went in, and lo ! the temple was full of the sun on every 
side, and he exclaimed, " Happy architect ! you have built the true 
temple for the sun, because it is one that the sun himself cannot but 
possess, and dwell in." — Unknown. So the way of cleansing from dark- 
ness is by letting in the light; from the spirit of evil, by the indwelling 
of the spirit of God. 

Library. — Dr Chalmers' Astronomical Sermons, "The Expulsive 
Power of a New Affection." 



Eev. Charles G. Finney, D. D., the Oberlin divine, "had a great 
aversion to debt and hesitated about dedicating church edifices that 
were not paid for or completed. When he consented to do this he some- 
times prayed: 'O Lord, we offer this house to Thee. It is not yet fin- 
ished, indeed, but we remember that we have frequently offered 



II: 1 8-25 ST. JOHN 65 



A. D. 27. 

April g-16. 
The Passover, 
JERUSALEM. 

FIRST YEAR. 

First 

Cleansing 

of the 

Temple, 



18. If Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign 
shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? 

19. Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, 
and in three days I will raise it up. 

'20. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple 
in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? 

21. But he spake of the temple of his body. 

22. When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples 
remembered that he had said this unto them ; and they believed 
the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said. *** *** 

23. H Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many 
believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. 

24. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, 

25. And needed not that any should testify of man ; for he knew what was in 
man. 



ourselves to Thee and Thou hast accepted us, though Thou knowest that 
we are far from being finished yet.'" 



17. The Zeal of Thine House Hath Eaten me Up. —Zeal adds 
greatly to the power of a man. The executive force of any moving 
object is measured by the mass multiplied by velocity. 



How Jesus was Able to Accomplish so Great a Work Alone.— (1) 
By the force of His zeal multiplied by His character. (2) The great drift 
of the laws of God, and the pervasive conscience, were on His side. 
(3) The consciousness of wrong made the evil doers weak. 

Library. — Joseph Cook's Monday Lectures, Conscience, " Solar Self 
Culture." " Other things being equal Caesar's eye goes down whenever 
it meets, and does not possess, the solar look." 

Scott's Marmion : — 

" Thus oft it haps that when within 
They shrink at sense of secret sin, 

A feather daunts the brave ; 
A fool's wild speech confounds the wise 
And proudest princes veil their eyes 
Before their meanest slave." 
18. "The question, What sign showest Thou unto us, was absurd. 
It was to ask for a light to see light with, a sign of a sign." — Dods. 



22. When Therefore He was Eisen. — Then it became plain what 
Jesus meant, and how perfect was the sign. 

5 



66 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS II : 18-25 

His body was the temple of God. 

TJie temple at Jerusalem was destroyed through the destruction of His 
body on the cross. 

The resurrection of Jesus, after three days restored the temple of His 
body. 

The Spiritual temple of God's people, filled with the Holy Ghost is the 
fruit of the resurrection of Jesus. 



25. He Knew What was in Man. — As the maker of a watch knows 
what is in the watch because he made each part. 

The Roentgen rays, that show through wood and cloth and flesh what 
is within the body, give a faint hint of Christ's insight into the soul of 
man. 



Mr. Titbottom's Spectacles. — George William Curtis published 
some years ago, a volume entitled, ' ' Prue and I. " In it is a chapter 
called "Mr. Titbottom's Spectacles." The magical quality of these 
spectacles was that, when their owner looked through them at people, 
he ceased to see people as they ordinarily appeared on the street ; he saw 
their real essential character personified. Wonderful were the revela- 
tions that were made. He looked at one man and saw nothing but a 
ledger. Another was simply a billiard cue. Another a jockey cap. 
Another a pack of cards. He looked at women, and one was a 
broomstick. Another was a fashion plate. A third was a needle, and 
so on. 



Ill: 1-5 



ST. JOHN 



6 7 



CHAPTER III. 



THE NEW HEART. 



1. There was a man of the Pharisees, named Mcodemus, a 
ruler of the Jews: 

2. The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, 
Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God : for 
no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be 
with him. 

3. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say 
unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the 
kingdom of God. 

4. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when 
he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's 
womb, and be born '? 

5. Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a 
man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into 
the kingdom of God. 



A. D. 27. 

April. Time 

of Passover, 

which was 

April g-i6, that 

year. 

FIRST YEAR. 
THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

JERUSALEM. 

IN AN UPPER 
CHAMBER. 
The First 
Recorded 
Discourse 
of Jesus. 

Nicodemus, 
and the 

New Birth. 



Pictures. — Nicodemus meeting Jesus at night, by- 
Rembrandt ; by Tiutoretto. 

1. Nicodemus the Hamlet of the New Testament. — "For cen- 
turies scholars have spoken of this interview between Christ and the 
young ruler, as ' the great refusal.' Dante, wandering with Virgil through 
the Inferno, thought he saw the young ruler searching for his lost oppor- 
tunity. For this ruler was the Hamlet of the New Testament. Like 
the Prince of Denmark, he stood midway between his conscience and his 
task, and indecision slew him. It has been said that Hamlet could have 
been happy had he remained in ignorance of his duty, or had he boldly 
obeyed the vision which called him to action. It was because he knew 
more than he had the courage to do that a discord arose, which destroyed 
the symmetry and sanity of his mind. His madness grew out of the 
breach between his enlarged and haunting sense of right, and his 
faltering ability to face and fulfill it. Thus also the tragedy of this 
young ruler's life grew out of the fact that the new aspiration made his 
old contentment impossible, and compelled him either to go on with 
boldness to better things, or to go back to emptiness and misery. 
Beholding him, Christ loved him for what he was, and pointed out 
what he might become. He knew that the better was a great enemy 
of the best. For Christ had the double vision of the sculptor." 



68 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS III : 1-5 

" Before him was the mass of marble, rude and shapeless. But the 
outer shapelessness concealed the inner symmetry. Only the flying 
chips could let loose the form of glowing beauty hidden within. And 
before that youth he lifted up a vision of still better things. He set the 
youtli midway between the man he was and the man he might become. 
He had achieved so much that Christ would fain lead him on unto per- 
fection itself. When the husbandman beholds his vines entering into 
leafage and blossom, he nurtures the vines on unto fruitage. When 
Arnold finds some young Stanley ready to graduate, he whispers : ' One 
thing thou lackest ; let all thy life become one eager pursuit of knowl- 
edge.' And to this youth who had climbed so high came the vision of 
something fairer and better still. Going on before, Christ lured him 
forward, even as of old the goddess lured the Grecian boy forward by 
rolling rosy apples along the path. But the interview ended with the 
' great refusal.' And the youth went away, not angry or rebellious, but 
sad and deeply grieved at himself. For now he knew how far his 
aspiration outran performance. Like Hamlet, indecision palsied action. 
Contentment perished, for the vision of perfection ever haunted him. 
At first Christ's words and look of earnest affection filled his heart with a 
tumult of joy ; but having fallen back into the old sordid self, the very 
memory of his Master's face became a curse and torture. And so the 
vision blighted that should have blessed." — N. D. Hillis. 



2. Came to Jesus by Night. — "A striking illustration of this might 
have been seen in Safed during the earlier months of this year. When 
the shadows had crept up from the dark sea, through the deep sur- 
rounding valleys, and wrapped the tall JermuJc in twilight, round by 
the back of the old castle hill, through the grove of ancient olives, and 
along by the base of the ruined fortifications, several youths of the 
nobler sort from among the Jewish inhabitants regularly took their 
cautious way to the house of the teacher, from whom they eagerly 
listened to the truth as to the kingdom of God. The outbreak of 
bitterness against one who two years ago displayed too obvious sym- 
pathy with flu; Christian cause, showed conclusively that (heir caution 
was not without justification. "— Eev. William Earing in Sunday School 
Times. 



8. EXCEPT a Man be Born Again. — avu>8sv, from above, anew, afresh,, 
over again, denoting repetition —Thayer. Whoever is born again, is 
born anew, horn from above. This is a, most perfeel metaphor express- 
ing the changes of character and of life in the same person. 



Ill: 1-5 



ST. JOHN 



69 



Born of Water and of Spirit. — (1) Water may 
refer to Baptism as the prescribed door into the out- 
ward visible Kingdom of God, as the heavenly city 
with gates, or a Kingdom with bound- 
Many Mean- aries ; while the Spirit is the naturaliza- 

ings, All tion into the Kingdom. (2) Water may 

Correct. be but a symbol of the cleansing work 

of the Spirit. (3) Water may refer to 

the great truths which underlie the Sacrament of 

Baptism, the putting away of the old, unclean nature, 

and the rising to newness of life. 

There are two factors in Salvation, the cleansing 
from sin, the putting off the old nature ; and the 
implanting of a new life, a new heart. These inter- 
pretations may all be true, as a tree has several 
branches. We find examples abundantly in the nat- 
ural and in the intellectual world. Air is to breathe, but it has many 
other uses, it holds the rain, it carries the cloud chariots, it holds the 
particles which disperse the light ; it is the means of sound and all 
music. All these and more are true, and we need not reject the others 
because we hold to one. 



A. D. 27. 

April. Time 

of Passover^ 

which ions 

A/>ri/g-i6 y that 

year. 

FIRST YK \K\ 
I' I IK YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

JERUSALKM. 

IN AN UPPER 
CHAMBER. 
The fl'irst 
Recorded 
Discourse 
of Jesusi 

Nlcodemus, 
and 1 he 

New Birth. 



" The New Birth is not a constitutional change, the impartation of 
new faculties or new powers tothe soul. It is a greater change than 
this, a change of character ; the supreme inclination of the affections is 
changed. A converted man thinks, reasons, remembers, imagines, 
now ; and he did all these before conversion. A regenerate heart 
feels, desires, loves, hates, now ; and it did all these before. But 1 
the chief subjects of thought, of love, of hatred, are changed ; they are I 
/ revolutionized. It is the most radical change of which human char- 
acter is susceptible. It is a change from sin to holiness." — Prof. Phelps, 
in The New Birth. 



\] 



Changed by the Lamp Within. — Tlie Tale of Goethe, interpreted by 
Carlyle in one of his essays, " a piece which is wonderful even among 
the works of that supreme literary artist," represents a rude fisherman's 
hut, "through which a light placed within breathed a new life and an 
immortal beauty. By virtue of the lamp locked up within it, the hut 
had been converted from inside to the outside into solid silver. Ere 
long, too, its form changed, for the noble metal shook aside the acci- 
dental shape of planks, posts and beams, and stretched itself out into a 
noble case of beaten ornamented workmanship." The rude hut became 
an exquisitely beautiful temple. 



70 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS III : 1-5 

Library. — A Study of Conversion in the American Journal of Psy- 
chology for Jan. 1897. ,; The professor has been at work three years 
collecting statistics on the psychology of conversion. The science of the 
century kneels by the cradle of the child, and says that conversion is a 
normal step in the unfolding of a child's life. When normal steps are 
neglected there may be an abnormal product. He takes the child from 
ten to nineteen years of age, and shows that the critical period of life is 
between these two ages." 

It's on the Inside. — " While walking down the street one day I passed 
a store when the proprietor was washing the large plate glass show 
window. 

There was one soiled spot, which defied efforts to remove it. After 
rubbing hard at it, using much soap and water, and failing to remove it, 
he found out the trouble. ' It's on the inside,' he called out to some 
one in the store. 

Many are trying to cleanse the soul from its stains. They wash it 
with the tears of sorrow ; they scrub it with soap of good resolves ; they 
rub it with chamois of morality, but still the consciousness of it is not 
removed. The trouble is, ' It's on the inside.' It is the heart which is 
bad. If the fountain is bitter the stream will not be sweet. 

Nothing but the blood of Jesus, applied by the mighty hand of the 
Holy Spirit, can cleanse the inside, for God's spirit alone can reach the 
* inside. ' " — Ex. 



"Pruning a Crab apple Tree will increase the crop of sour apples, 
but if you want sweet fruit, you must graft in the old stock, a sacch- 
arine variety. You cannot substitute morality for religion. A new 
principle produces the fruits of righteousness. Morality prunes; religion 
engrafts." — Ram's Horn. 

A Change of Moral Nature. — "It is not easy to impress on 
younger children the importance of a change of nature, because — 
whatever they may be taught to repeat — they do not realize that their 
nature is sinful. Perhaps the best method is to use such an illustration 
as this: — As the tiger-cub, though harmless, has in it a ferocious 
nature ; which will be developed by-and-bye, so is it with you and sin — 
pray then for the new heart now — the change will be harder as you 
grow older. The same lesson is taught by the well-known anecdote of 
the great painter who painted from life a picture of a bright little 
child, calling it Innocence, and many years after painted another 
picture from life of a convicted felon, calling it Guilt. It turned out 
that the felon was no other than the once bright little child grown up. 



Ill :. 1-5 



ST. JOHN 



71 



Other illustrations of the necessity of an inward and 
spiritual change : — The heart the mainspring of 
action, like that of a watch. — No use to cut down 
weeds; they must be rooted up. — A wax figure can 
be made like a man, and mechanism can give it 
motion ; but it has no life ; so an outwardly religious 
man, without the Spirit. "— Eugene Stock. 



A. ». 27. 

April. Time 

of Passover \ 

which ivas 

April 9-16, that 

year. 

FIRST YEAR. 
THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

JERUSALEM. 
IN AN UPPER 
CHAMBER. 

The First 

Recorded 
Discourse 
of Jesus. 

Nicodemus, 
and the 

New Birth. 



The Second Birth. — " The second birth impresses 
the image of God on every regenerate soul. It may 
not as yet be developed in every part, but all its parts 
are there in germ. It is not a partial but a complete 
result which regeneration effects. It is not one mem- 
ber, a hand, or a foot that is born, but a body, a com- 
plete equipment of the soul in all graces. The whole 
character is regenerated, so that the man is fitted 
for all the duties of the divine life whensoever these duties shall come 
before him. A human child does not need additions made to it to fit it 
for new functions; it requires growth, it requires nurture, it requires 
education and the practice of human ways, but it requires no new organ 
to be inserted into its frame; once born, it has but to grow." — Prof. 
Marcus Dods. 



The Wild Rose Renewed. — Mr. Beecher says: "Natural roses are 
comparatively humble by the side of cultivated ones; and it is culture 
that has made the difference. Yet there was in the wilding the power 
of development." He means that there lies in the wild rose the power 
of being developed, but it is by the outside power of man putting into 
the wild rose a life that was not there before. 

The Poet Says : — 

" You may grind them both in the self -same mill, 
You may bind them, heart and brow; 
But the poet will follow the rainbow still, 
And the other will follow the plow." 

And they will so long as their inner hearts and life are different. A 
changed life will depend upon a changed nature. 



How the Briar Became a Rose. — ' ' Once there was a briar grow- 
ing in a ditch, and there came along a gardener with his spade. As he 
dug around it and lifted it out, the briar said to itself, ' what is he doing 
that for; doesn't he know that I am only an old worthless briar?' But 



J2 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS III : I— 5 

the gardener took it into the garden, and planted it amid his flowers, 
while the briar said, 'what a mistake he has made, planting an old 
briar like myself among such rose trees as these ! ' But the gardener 
came once more with his keen-edged knife, and made a slit in the briar, 
and, as we say in England, ' budded it with a rose; ' and by-and-by, 
when summer came, lovely roses were blooming on that old briar. 
Then the gardener said, ' your beauty is not due to that which came out 
of you, but to that which I put into you.' " — Mark Guy Pearse. 



Changes Wrought by Christ. — " John Chrysostom ingeniously 
remarks that the animals which went out of Noah's ark went out the 
same as they came in. The crow went out a crow; the wolf , a wolf; 
the fox, a fox. 'But the church transforms the animals she receives 
into her bosom ; not by any change in their substance, but by the extir- 
pation of their sin.' The magic wand of a Circe formerly metamor- 
phosed men into brutes; but the Divine Word changes the brutes into 
true men. Yea, more than this; it changes them into angels (Isa. 11: 6-9; 
1 Cor. 6:9-11)." — Choice Notes. 



The Cracked Bell Restored. — "Yonder is a cracked bell. How 
again to restore it ? By one of two methods. The first is to repair the 
bell, to encompass it with hoops, to surround it with bands. Neverthe- 
less, you can easily discern the crack of the bell in the crack of the 
sound. The only effectual way is to re melt the bell, recast it, and make 
it all new ; then it will ring clear, round, sonorous as ever. And human 
nature is a bell suspended high up in the steeple of creation to ring forth 
the praises of the Almighty Creator. But in the fall in Eden the bell 
cracked. How again to restore it ? By one of two ways. One is to 
surround it with outward laws and regulations as with steel hoops. 
This is the method adopted by philosophy as embodied in practical 
statesmanship, and, no doubt, there is a marked improvement in the 
sound. Nevertheless, the crack in the metal shows itself in the crack in 
the tone. The best way is to remelt it, recast it, remold it, and this is 
God's method in the Gospel." — Rev. J. C. Jones, D. D. 



Snowflake From a Drop of Water.— " A drop of water lay one day 
in a gutter soiled, stained, polluted. Looking up into the blue of the 
sky it began to wish for purity, to long to be cleansed and made crystal- 
line. Its sigh was heard, and it was quickly lifted up by the sun's 
gentle fingers — up, out of the foul gutter into the sweet air, then higher 
and higher ; at length the gentle winds caught it and bore it away, and 
by and by it rested on a distant mountain top, a flake of pure white 



Ill 



•5 



ST. JOHN 



73 



beautiful snosv. This is a parable of what the grace 
of God does for every sinful life that longs and cries 
for purity and holiness." — From "Making the Most of 
Life," by Rev. J. R. Miller, D. D. 



Library. — The Poem " Beautiful Snoiv," in Snow- 
flake Album Am. Tract Soc. and Suggestive Illustra- 
tions on Matthew. 



Re-shaped by Christ. — The story in the verses 
below is told of the statue of David, at Florence, by 
Michael Angelo. The version used is that given by 
Dr. A. MacLeod, in one of his beautiful w< Talks to the 
Children," entitled "Re-shaped by Christ." 

" In a fair and ancient city, 

'Neath the blue Italian sky ; 
Where rich treasures art has gathered, 

As the years rolled swiftly by ; 
Treasures vast of painting, sculpture, 

Rare mosaic, carving strange ; 
Stands a statue that has witnessed 

Four long centuries of change. 

Long ago a block of marble 

To that city fair was borne ; 
Marble free from stain or flaw- mark, 

Pure as pearly cloud of morn, 
And the rulers sought a sculptor, 

Bade him carve a statue grand, 
That it might adorn their city, 

Fair as any in the land. 

But the sculptor's hand, unskilful, 

Marred the beauty of the stone, 
It was cast aside as worthless, 

Left unheeded and alone ; 
Covered o'er with dust and rubbish, 

Vanished all its beauty rare ; 
So it lay — spoilt, ruined, wasted ! 

Lay through many a wearied year. 

Till a 5 oung and unknown sculptor, 
Passing by, with thoughtful brow, 



A. D. 27. 

April. Time 

of Passover, 

which was 

April g-i6, that 

year. 

FIRST YEAR. 

THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

JERUSALEM. 

IN AN UPPER 
CHAMBER. 
The First 
Recorded 
Discourse 
of Jesus. 

Nicodemus, 
and the 

New Birth. 



74 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS III : 1-5 

Saw the stone, and said, " An angel 

Hides within it even now." 
" Take the stone, and free the angel," 

Said the rulers, half in scorn. 
Many a day the artist labored, 

Until one fair summer morn, 

Saw the statue stand completed ; 

And the rulers proud declared 
He had found the hidden angel 

In the marble once so marred. 
And in place of highest honor 

Glad they set the statue fair ; 
While the city rang with praises, 

Of the sculptor's skill so rare. 

Read ye not a deeper meaning 

In this tale of long ago — 
Story of a soul's salvation 

From the depths of sin and woe ? 
Made by God in perfect beauty, 

Crown of all His Eden bright ; 
Ruined, lost by sin and Satan, 

Hidden far from love and light. 

Till the Great, the Heavenly Artist, 

Cleansed away each soil and stain, 
Carved and shaped, until in beauty 

Shone God's image forth again. 
Then the Master's hand removed it 

To the place prepared above, 
While the heavenly city echoed 

Praises to redeeming love." — Dr. N. MacLeod. 






The Transformed Menagerie. — Geo. Dana Boardman has a capital 
article in the New York Independent of December 18, 1890, on " The 
Transfigured Menagerie," in which he tells how Jesus Christ organizes 
the warring elements of the soul. "It is not by annihilating the pas- 
sions; it is by transfiguring them. For example: Jesus Christ takes the 
instinct of accumulation and turns it into moral acquisition; the instinct 
of ambition, and turns it into a means of philanthropy; even the 
instinct of vengeance, and turns it into forgiveness — literally over- 
coming evil with good. . . . He is taming the wild, growling* 
gnashing menagerie of mankind, slowly but surely transfiguring it 
into the city of God." 



TIT: 1-5 



ST. TOHN 



75 



Transformations. — Bare roots into flowers. Char- 
coal into diamonds. The precious metal aluminum, 
of which our common clays are largely composed 
" can become ruby, topaz, amethyst, sapphire, or 
emerald," and is now in the process of becoming one 
of the most largely used and useful of metals. So 
God changed Saul into Paul, the courtier Moses into 
the deliverer, the profane fisherman into Peter with 
the keys of the kingdom of heaven. 



A. D. 27. 

April. Tt7ne 

of Passover, 

which was 

April Q)-\6, that 

year. 

FIRST YEAR. 
THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

JERUSALEM. 

IN AN UPPER 
CHAMBER. 
The First 
Recorded 
Discourse 
of Jesus. 

Nicodemus, 
and tlie 

New Birth. 



Isaiah's Prophecy of changes — the desert into the 
rose garden, gold instead of brass, silver for iron, and 
brass for wood. 

Ezekiel's Prophecy of the new heart in place of 
the heart of stone. And his illustration of the restora- 
tion of Judah from the valley of dry bones, which became clothed in 
flesh, and when he prophesied "Come from the four winds, O Breath 
(Spirit), and breathe upon these slain," they lived, an exceeding great 
army. 



Jewels from the Slime of the Streets. —Mr. Ruskin, in his 
Modern Painters, tells that the black mud or slime from a foot-path in 
the outskirts of a manufacturing town — the absolute type of impurity 
— is composed of four elements, — clay, mixed with soot, a little sand, 
and water. These four may be separated each from the other. The 
clay particles, left to follow their own instinct of unity, become a clear, 
hard substance so set that it can deal with light in a wonderful way, 
and gather out of it the loveliest blue rays only, refusing the rest. We 
call it then a sapphire. The sand arranges itself in mysterious, infi- 
nitely fine parallel lines, which reflect the blue, green, purple, and red 
rays in the greatest beauty. We call it then an opal. The soot becomes 
the hardest thing in the world, and for the blackness it had obtains the 
power of reflecting all the rays of the sun at once in the vividest blaze 
that any solid thing can shoot. We call it then a diamond. Last of 
all, the water becomes. a dew-drop, and a crystalline star of snow. Thus 
God can and does transform the slime of the streets into pure and shin- 
ing jewels fit for His home in heaven. 



General Booth in His Darkest England puts forth his scheme 
for the saving of the " submerged tenth," and as the fruit of his wide 
observation and life-long labors, puts first of all in his scheme, " The 
first essential that must be borne in mind as governing every scheme 



y6 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS III : I-$ 

that may be put forward is that it must change the man when it is his 
character and conduct which constitute the reasons for his failure in 
the battle of life. No change in circumstances, nor revolution in social 
condition, can possibly transform the nature of the man. Some of the 
worst men and women in the world, whose names are chronicled by 
history with a shudder of horror, were those who had all the advantages 
that wealth, education, and station could confer or ambition could 
obtain. The supreme test of any scheme for benefiting humanity lies, 
first — in the answer to the question: What does it make of the 
individual ? " 



Library. — Kid's Social Evolution. Prof. Phelps' The New Birth. 

Library. — The sermon on the heart, in D. W. Whittle's Gospel Pic- 
tures and Story Sermons. 

Library. — There is a fine illustration of the necessity of a right 
heart, a living soul of goodness, in order to have part in the resurrec- 
tion of the just, to be found in Whately's "Future State," p. 222-4: 
the ichneumon fly destroying the "psyche" or soul in the caterpillar, 
so that no butterfly is produced from the larva. The same is found in 
Whately's Annotations on Bacon's Essays, p. 17, 18. His biology must 
be modified somewhat by the later investigations of modern science, 
but the illustration will still hold. 



^Necessity of the New Birth. — " Perhaps the necessity of the 
second birth may be more clearly apprehended if we consider it from 
another point of view. In this world we find a number of creatures 
which have what is known as animal life. They can work, and feel, 
and, in a fashion, think. They have wills, and certain dispositions, and 
distinctive characteristics. Every creature that has animal life has a 
certain nature according to its kind, and determined by its parentage ; 
and this nature which the animal receives from its parents determines 
from the first the capabilities and sphere of the animal's life. The mole 
cannot soar in the face of the sun like the eagle ; neither can the bird 
that comes out of the eagle's egg burrow like the mole. No training 
can possibly make the tortoise as swift as the antelope, or the antelope 
as strong as the lion. If a mole began to fly and enjoy the sunlight it 
must be counted a new kind of creature, and no longer a mole. The 
very fact of its passing certain limitations shows that another nature has 
somehow been infused into it. Beyond its own nature no animal can 
act. You might as well attempt to give the eagle the appearance of the 
serpent as to try to teach it to crawl. Each kind of animal is by its 
birth endowed with its own nature, fitting it to do certain things, and 
making other things impossible. So is it with us : we are born with 



Ill: 1-5 



ST. JOHN 



77 



certain faculties and endowments, with a certain 
nature ; and just as all animals, without receiving any 
new, individual, supernatural help from God, can act 
according to their nature, so can we. We, being 
human, have a high and richly-endowed animal 
nature, a nature that leads us not only to eat, drink, 
sleep, and fight like the lower animals, but a nature 
which leads us to think and to love, and which, by 
■culture and education, can enjoy a much richer and 
wider life than the lower creatures. Is there anything 
which so distinctly separates us from the lower 
animals as our capacity for God and eternity ?" 



A.D. 27. 

April. Ti)7ie 

of Passover, 

which was 

April 9-16, that 

year. 

FIRST YEAR. 
THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

JERUSALEM. 

IN AN UPPER 
CHAMBER. 
The First 
Recorded 
Discoiirse 
of Jesus. 

Nicoderaus, 
and tlie 

New Birth. 



Necessity of a Radical Change. — "A man has 
bought a farm, and he finds on that farm an old 4* * 

pimp. He goes to the pump and begins to pump. And a person 
comes to him and says, ' Look here, my friend, you do not want 
to use that water. The man that lived here before, he used that 
water, and it poisoned him and his wife and his children — the 
water did.' 'Is that so?' says the man. 'Well, I will soon make 
that right. I will find a remedy.' And he goes and gets 
some paint, and he paints -up the pump, putties up all the The 
holes, and fills up the cracks in it, and has got a fine-look- Painted 
ing pump. And he says, ' Now I am sure it is all right.' Pump. 
You would say, 'What a fool, to go and paint the pump 
when the water is bad ! ' But that is what the sinners are up to. They 
are trying to paint up the old pump when the water is bad. It was a 
new well he wanted. When he dug a new well it was all right. Make 
the fountain good, and the stream will be good. Instead of painting the 
pump and making new resolutions, my friend, stop it, and ask God to 
give you a new heart." — Dwight L. Moody. 



O for a man to rise in me 

That the man I am may cease to be." — Tennyson. 



Illustrations of Transformation by a Power from Without. — 
One of the questions which have been puzzling metallurgists, but which 
now has largely been solved is " to discover some way by which the 
metal aluminum can be profitably extracted from clay. The substance 
is literally as plentiful as dirt. It is found all over the 
globe. It is as light as wood, as soft as lead or as hard as Aluminum 
steel accordingly as it is tempered, it does not rust, it can from Clay. 



78 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS III : I~5 

scarcely be broken and can receive a fine polish. It is the ideal metal. 
The present is the iron age, but the golden age will, in all likeli- 
hood, be, strange to say, the aluminum age. The metal is a fine 
illustration of what the Christian should be. He is the ideal man. 
Without a developed spiritual nature a human being is only half a man. 
He has to be transformed from the common clay by the powerful touch 
of the Spirit in regeneration." 

Transformations OF an Ash-Barrel. — " You'll be surprised to 
know what comes out of that dreadful- looking place. Let me tell you 
a few of the things the picker finds, and you'll see that the fairies of 
the story books never performed any greater marvels than every day 
come from the hands of common workmen. Beautiful cloth worth 
several dollars a yard comes out of the ash barrel, the most exquisite of 
papers, balls and buttons of ivory, the daintiest of toilet soap, and the 
nicest of jelly, the phosphorus that we want for our matches, coal to 
burn, and furs to keep us warm, solder, boneblack, and leather, and — 
dear me ! I couldn't tell you in an hour all the strange things the 
ashman carries off in that dismal-looking bag of his. 

" In fact, there is not one thing that goes into the ash-barrel but goes 
through changes so wonderful that we are glad to pay a great price to 
get it back into the house in its new shape." — Olive Thome Miller. 



Perfumes, Whence They Came. — "As to perfumes, there are some 
which are really oils and others extracted from flowers. There are 
others which are made artificially, and curiously, most frequently out 
of bad-smelling compounds. The fusel -oil, separated out in the distil- 
lation of spirits, has a peculiarly nasty and sickening odor. It is used, 
after treatment with acids and oxidizing agents, to make the oil of 
apples and the oil of pears. Oil of grapes and oil of cognac are little 
more than f used-oil largely diluted. Oil of pineapples, on the other 
hand, is best made by the action of putrid cheese on sugar, or by dis- 
tilling rancid butter with alcohol and oil of vitriol. This oil is largely 
used for making pineapple ale. Many a fair forehead used to be damped 
with " Eau de Millefleurs" without knowing that its essential ingredient 
was got from the drainings of cow houses, though now it can be 
obtained cheaper from one of the constituents of gas tar. Out of 
the latter is got oil of bitter almonds, so largely used to perfume soap 
and confectionery." 

How well this illustrates the attractive character, the charm of grace 
which God can produce by his transformations of men by the new 
heart and new life implanted by the Holy Spirit. 



Ill : 1-5 



ST. JOHN 



79 



The Sunset Clouds, Whence Came They. — One 
looks at the sunset glories of the sky, the clouds shin- 
ing in many radiant colors as if a thousand rainbows 
had been scattered in fragments along the horizon ; 
and it seems as if there were the very gate of heaven ; 
he looks at the snowflakes so pure, so beautiful, — and 
he asks, Whence came these ? They came from the 
salt waters of the sea ; they came from muddy reptile- 
haunted marsh and fen ; they came from road -side 
pools. They were raised to the sky by the sun, and 
are now glorified by his rays. 



A. D. 27. 

April. Time 

of Passover, 

■w/iic/i was 

April 9-16, that 

year. 

FIRST YEAR. 
THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

JERUSALEM. 

IN AN UPPER 
CHAMBER. 
The First 
Recorded 
Discourse 
of Jesus. 

Nicodemus, 

Illustration of the Changes Which Christ andtiie 
Brings to Men. — The queen visited a paper mill. At New irt • 

the door of this room was a great multitude of poor, •%• * 

dirty men and women and children, bringing old bags on their backs, 
filled with bits of rags, and paper and the like, all exceedingly filthy. 
These were rag-pickers, who had picked these old things out of the 
streets and gutters of the great city. 

"What do you do with all these vile things?" said the queen. 

"Why, madam, I make paper out of them." 

" But these rags ! Why, sir, they are all colors, and how do you 
make them white?" 

" Oh, I have the power of taking out all the dirt and the The Queen 
old colors. You see that scarlet and that crimson, yet I in the 
can make even scarlet and crimson, the hardest colors to Paper Mill, 
remove, become white as snow." 

" Wonderful, wonderful ! " said the queen. 

He then showed her all the machinery, how they bleach the rags, and 
make them white ; how they grind them into pulp ; how they make 
sheets, and smooth them and dry them, and make them beautiful. The 
queen was astonished and delighted. 

A few days after, the queen found lying upon her writing-desk a pile 
of the most beautiful polished paper she had ever seen. On each sheet 
were the letters of her own name, and her own likeness. How she did 
admire it ! She found also a note within, which she read. It ran thus : 

" Will my queen be pleased to accept a specimen of my paper, with 
the assurance that every sheet was manufactured out of the contents of 
those dirty bags which she saw on the backs of the poor rag- pickers ? " 
— Rev. Dr. John Todd. 

And on this paper, made from rags, can be written the best literature 
the world has seen, the noblest love ever experienced, the highest truths 
Qod has revealed to man, 



8o SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS III : I~5 

11 The soul of music slumbers in the shell 
Till waked and kindled by the Master's spell ; 
And feeling hearts, touch them but rightly, pour 
A thousand melodies unheard before." 



Power of Transforming Grace.— " However great a sinner one may 
be he need never despair at any time in his life of the divine mercy, 
for, as there is no tree so thorny, knotted, and gnarled but what it can 
be planed, polished, and rendered beautiful; so, in like manner, there is 
not a man in the world, however criminal, or however great a sinner 
he may be, but that God may convert him in order to adorn his soul 
with all the virtues and with the most signal graces." — Fra Egidio. 



"Morality divorced from religion is a flower without root, which 
may bloom for a while, but in the end must wither away ; religion 
without morality is — nothing at all; worse than nothing, for it is a 
sham." — J. Monro Gibson. 



The Swan and the Heron. — The necessity for a new heart was 
illustrated by Mr. Moody in a recent address, by the Legend of the 
Swan who came from the skies, and invites the Heron to soar upward 
with him. He pictures the beauty of the clouds, the glories of the stars, 
the charming landscapes, the flowing streams. The Heron asks in 
reply, "Are there any snails there'?" Not for all these pure glories 
would he leave his mud and snails. 



The Fact not the Hour of Conversion. — Because there must be a 
new birth it does not follow that every person must know 
the hour or the year when he began the new life. A large When the 
proportion of the best saints could not tell when they be- Child Be- 
came Christians. This is especially true of those who begin comes a Man. 
young. The child cannot tell the hour when he becomes a 
man. Joining the church is like becoming a citizen at 21, and casting 
the first vote. 

The new life is like the coming of spring after the winter. 
No one can tell by feelings or appearances when spring When Spring 
really begins. There are warm spells early, and cold spells Begins. 
and frosts very late. But spring does come. 

So it is impossible to know when the sun rises on a The Minute 
cloudy day, but in due time we know the fact, that the of Sunrise. 
night is gone and the day has come. 



Ill: 1-5 



ST. JOHN 



81 



Reversing A ship reverses her course often in a 
the Course, large circle, and it is almost impossible to 
tell the exact point where the course runs 
in an opposite direction. 

Who can tell when a seed begins to grow. 

The New Birth but the Beginning of the New 
Life. — "The birth of a child is but the beginning of 
its life, and beyond that are years or ages of develop- 
ment, growth, evolution, and unfolding and training 
of powers and possibilities almost without limit or 
end. 

" The sprouting of a seed is but the beginning of the 
plant's life. But you cannot develop the plant unless 
it is alive. You cannot culture a grain of sand. 



A. ». 27. 

April, lime 

of Passover, 

which was 

April 9- 16, that 

yea r. 

FIRST YEAR. 
THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

JERUSALEM. 

IN AN UPPER 

CHAMBER. 

The First 
Recorded 
Discourse 
of Jesus. 

Mcodemus, 
and the 

New Birth. 



" Heaven is not reached at a single bound, 
But we build the Ladder by which we rise 
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, 
And we mount to its summit round by round." 

" If Christianity is a Life, it must begin with a birth ; if a journey, 
it cannot be taken unless we set out ; if an Education, we must deter- 
mine to commence the education ; if Labor in God's vineyard we must 
go into the vineyard and begin." —James Freeman Clark, D. D. 



" Of this little seed that I hold in my hand (apple seed) some one has 
told us that it 

" Holds a thousand green leaves folded tight, 
Holds a thousand flowers, pink and white, 
Bold S a ivw with its branches all complete, 
And fruit that is juicy, golden and sweet.' 1 — Anon. 



Not a Hard Command, but a Blessed Privilege. — "Ye must be 
born again " is a privilege even more than a command. It means hope, 
growth, noble experiences, higher life. It is not an obstacle, but a 
door; not a bar, but a gate ; not a hindrance, but a bridge, a stairway, 
even steps to glory, the realization of Jacob's dream. 



The New Life. — " There is a life so high, pure and rich, that it can 
not be attained by any culture of any present faculties, however excel- 



82 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS III : 6-8 



6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh j and that which is born of the Spirit is 
spirit. 

7. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 

8. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but 
canst not tell whence it coineth, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born 
of the Spirit. 

lent. It must be born. No culture makes a rose a bird, bird a man, 
natural man a spiritual child of God. How glad we are ! There is 
more for us than we anticipated or could acquire. How much richer 
is life after birth than before ! How little can the unborn know of the 
wider life of the born ! As little do the first- time born know of the life- 
hopes, joys and spiritual possibilities of the second-time born." — Bp. 
Warren. 



The Seed and the Plant. — I once saw the artist, Frank Beard, 
draw a picture of the ground with seeds in, and all manner of rocks 
and grubs and roots in the way. The seeds seemed to hear the invita- 
tion of the warm sun, and began to swell with life. Mr. 
Beard seemed to hear their voices, questioning whether Frank Beard's 
they should rise above ground or remain where they were. Picture. 
Some sprouted, and growing against a rock, turned back 
and withered away. Some were eaten by the grubs and never rose 
to the light. Then he pictured those, who in spite of all difficulties, 
rose above ground into the sunlight and air, changing their dark and 
damp life for the higher and fresher, and grew up with green leaves 
and flowers and fruits. 



Open to All. — As the sunlight calls the seeds — all seeds — to come 
up into the new life, so the Spirit of God broods over every soul. It need 
not wait; it need but answer to the influence and invitation. 



New Life Implanted in the World. — All geologists tell us that 
there was a time when there was no life in the world. Life must have 
been implanted before it was possible for it to become the beautiful 
world it is now. In the account of Creation in Genesis the word Create 
is used only of three epochs, the origin of Matter, of Life, of the Soul 
of man. No efforts to originate matter, or life, or soul, have proved 
successful. God put them into the world. After that the word used is 
Made, implying development, evolution, growth. A type of what God 
does in the Spiritual life of man, and the blessings which result. 



6. That which is Born of the Flesh is Flesh.—" By the word ' flesh ' 
He signifies the appetites, desires, faculties, which animate and govern 



Ill :6-8 



ST. JOHN 



83 



the body, as well as the body itself — the whole equip- 
ment with which nature furnishes a man for life in 
this world. This natural birth gives a man entrance 
into much, and forever determines much, that has 
important bearings on his person, character, and 
destiny. It determines all differences of nationality, 
of temperament, of sex ; apart altogether from any 
choice of his it is determined whether he shall be a 
South Sea Islander or a European ; an antediluvian 
living in a cave or an English man of the nineteenth 
century." — Prof. Dods. 



A. B. 27. 

April. Time 

of Passover, 

•which was 

April 9-16, that 

year, 

FIRST YEAR. 
THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

JERUSALEM. 

IN AX UPPER 
CHAMBER. 
The First 
Recorded 
Discourse 
of Jesus. 

Nicodemus, 
and the 

New Birth. 



Life Only From Life. — Prof. Drummond, in his 
Natural Law in the Spiritual World, illustrates this 
truth by the scientific doctrine of Biogenesis. God's "**• "^ 

works illustrate His Word. The law of nature is that only life 
can produce life, and therefore any object can rise into the kingdom 
above it only by means of new life imparted to it from that higher 
life, i. e., by being born from above. A stone cannot grow into 
a plant. The mineral kingdom cannot enter the vegetable kingdom 
except by plant-life imparted to it. The vegetable kingdom cannot be 
changed into the animal kingdom except through the imparting to it 
of animal life. There is no power of development of one 
into the other. ''Spontaneous generation is a heresy so Biogenesis, 
thoroughly discredited now, that scarcely an authority in 
Europe will lend his name to it." Each lower kingdom must be born 
from that above, in order to rise into it. From the plane of the lower 
life the qualities of the higher are inconceivable. It must be born from 
above even to see the kingdom that is above it. The same is true if we 
ascend from the animal life to the spiritual life. Life from above must 
be imparted to our natural life before we can enter or even see the 
spiritual kingdom. God's spiritual life imparted to our souls makes us 
God's children, and places us in the spiritual kingdom of God. " From 
the analogies of Biology we should expect three things ; first, that the 
new life should dawn suddenly; second, that it should come 'without 
observation; ' third, that it should develop gradually.*' 



It is a New Birth that is Required. — " Xo care spent on our con- 
duct, no improvement and refinement of the natural man suffices. For 
flying, it is not an improved caterpillar that is needed, it is a butterfly; 
it is not a caterpillar of finer color or more rapid movement or larger 
proportions, it is a new creature. AVe recognize that in this and that 



84 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 111:6-8 

man we meet there is something more than men naturally have; we 
perceive in them a taming, chastening, inspiring principle. And we 
mourn its absence because even when a man is dutiful, affectionate, 
temperate, honorable, yet if he have not grace, if he have not that 
peculiar tone and color which overspread the whole character, we 
instinctively feel that the defect is radical, that as yet he has not come 
into connection with the Eternal; that there is that wanting for which 
no natural qualities, however excellent, can compensate — nay, the 
more lovely and complete the natural character is, the more painful and 
lamentable is the absence of grace, of Spirit." — M. Dods. 



8. The Wind Bloweth Where it Listeth, Willeth, Pleaseth. — 
" At the pauses of the conversation, we may conjecture they heard the 
wind without, as it moaned along the narrow streets of Jerusalem ; and 
the Lord, as was His wont, took His creature into His service — the ser- 
vice of Spiritual truth." — Canon Liddon. 



So is Every one that is Born of the Spirit. —The Spirit's methods 
we cannot know, or why He influences just when or where He does, or 
how He imparts new life. But the facts of the new life are as plain and 
certain as that the strong wind bends the forest trees. We may not 
know the day nor the hour when we are born again, but we may know 
the fact bv the fruits. 



" When Coleridge said, ' By what manner of working God changes a 
soul from evil to good, how he impregnates the barren rock with gems 
and gold, is to the human mind an impenetrable mystery, in all cases 
alike,' he uttered only what every thoughtful mind feels. But this is 
very far from affirming that the change itself, the result of God's work- 
ing, is an enigma. A change of character, in itself considered, is one 
of the most intelligible of historic facts. — Prof. Phelps. 



9. How can These Things Be ! — It would be impossible to the insect 
in its chrysalis state to observe the laws which are made for the trans- 
formed state — for the worm to know the laws which make the summer 
fly seek the sunshine and live upon the flower — as it must " be born 
again " and enter upon a new existence before it can keep the laws of 
that existence. — Stamford. 



The man born blind cannot comprehend what vision is with all its 
powers. 



111:9-15 



ST. JOHN 



85 



9. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these 
things be? 

10. Jesus answered and said unlo him, Art thou a master of 
Israel, and knowest not these things? 

11. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do 
know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our 
witness. 

12. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how 
shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things. 

13. And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that 
came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in 
heaven. 

14. H And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, 
even so must the Son of man be lifted up : 

15. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
have eternal life. 



A. ». 27. 

April. Time 

of Passover. 

which was 

April 9-16, that 

year. 

FIRST YEAR. 
THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

JERUSALEM. 

IN AN UPPER 
CHAMBER. 
The First 
Recorded 
Discourse 
of Jesus. 

Nicodemus, 
and the 

New Birth. 



The German students have what they call the "Spinach argument." 
The old lady says, "lain glad I don't like spinach, for if I did I would 
have to eat it, and I hate it." 



Wind, Spirit, Birth. — ' ' These strongly set forth that so far from 
discouraging action, they are strongest incentives to it. For the wind 
is not " mysterious " in any such sense as to mean causeless or capri- 
cious. It is not independent of law. Mathematicians can go far in 
describing the properties of curves ; but fire a rifle, twirl a half-crown, 
or toss a ball into the air, which are the simplest and most familiar of 
acts, and though every convolution exactly obeys mathematical and 
physical laws, yet where is the Newton or the Leibnitz that could trace 
these in detail, and sum up for us so complex and intervolved a com- 
putation ? So the Spirit's influences are inscrutable, in great part, from 
the nature of the case. They deal with the most involved and inter- 
warped of all problems. They have to do with free agency, duty, 
destiny, and diversities of individual temperament and circumstances." 
— Dr. Guthrie. 



11. We Speak that we do Know.— "A handful of knowledge is worth 
more than this auditorium full of ignorance. One solitary thing that 
you know enough to die for, is worth ignorance enough to jostle the 
stars in their courses." — Dr. McKenzie. 



14. Moses Lifted Up the Serpent in the Wilderness. — "Moses 
made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, 
that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of 



86 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 111:9-1 5 

brass, he lived." The fiery flying serpent, with its poisonous bite and 
its deadly malice, was the vivid type of the evil of disobedience to the 
Divine command, infusing its malign venom into the whole nature of 
its victim. The serpent of brass was not venomous, though it bore the 
likeness of the deadly plague. It was not flying, gliding from tent to 
tent, but captured, still, hoisted triumphantly upon the pole, a sign of 
its conquest. The serpent in Hebrew and Christian literature through- 
out was emblematic of evil, not as in many Oriental religions, of healing 
or deliverance." — Pulpit Commentary. 



The Serpents. — "To this day a mottled snake, with fiery red spots 
upon its head, abounds at certain seasons in the Arabah. It is the dread 
of the fishermen, and is peculiarly dangerous to the bare- legged , 
sandaled Bedouin. So inflammable is its bite that it is likened to fire 
coming through the veins ; so intense its venom, and so rapid its action, 
that the bite is fatal in a few hours. The body swells with a fiery 
eruption ; the tongue is consumed with thirst ; and the poor wretch 
writhes in agony till death brings relief. This horrible pest suddenly 
appeared in the camp of Israel in prodigious numbers. From crevices 
in the rocks, from holes in the sand, from beneath the scanty herbage, 
these fiery-headed snake-demons swarmed into every tent. There was 
no runuing away from them, and killing seemed hardly to diminish 
their numbers. On every side there was a cry of anguish ; men, women, 
children, racked with the fiery torture ; none able to save or even to 
help another. ' And much of the children of Israel died ' (Numb. xxi. 
6)." — Biblical Illustrator. 

Guido's Picture. — " Not long ago I saw a picture of this by Guido. 
In the foreground strong men were writhing in the death agony ; some 
are pallid in death ; some hopelessly lifting eyes, bloodshot and ghastly, 
to the sacred emblem at the right hand of the picture, and already a 
new life throbs within them ; joy flushes the countenance with unex- 
pected hues of health. But in the centre is a mother, despair in her eye, 
lifting her babe with both hands, that it may gaze on the saving sight. 
Why does not the child look up ? Ah ! it is too far gone ; the deadly bite 
has penetrated to the central springs ; it hangs its head ; it droops ; it 
will not look ; it gives one throe of anguish, and dies in the mother's 
uplifted hands. Oh ! the unutterable pathos of that mother's look ! " — 
A. Wilson, B. A. 



Sin is like a fiery serpent, often beautiful in appearance, and secret in 
its approach. But the effects are pains that only fire can express. It 
infects the whole system. It inflames every evil passion. It is incurable 



111:9-15 



ST. JOHN 



87 



by man alone. If permitted to go on, it is death. The 
world is full to-day of the sorrows, the burning 
remorse, the agonies of the body and of the spirit 
which come from the fiery serpents of sin. Compare 
the old serpent, the Devil, the tempter and destroyer 
of men. 



A. D. 27. 

April. Time 

of Passover, 

which was 

April 9-16, that 

year. 

FIRST YEAR. 
THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

JERUSALEM. 

IN AN UPPER 
CHAMBER. 
Tlie First 
Recorded. 
Discourse 
of Jesus. 

Nicodemus, 
and the 

New Birth. 



The Serpent a Type of Sin and of Healing.— 
From the earliest times the serpent had been regarded 
as man's most dangerous enemy, — more subtle than 
any beast of the field, more sudden and stealthy in its 
attack, and more certainly fatal. The natural revul- 
sion which men feel in its presence and their inability 
to cope with it seemed to fit it to be the natural 
representative of the powers of spiritual evil. And yet, ^ ^ 

strangely enough, in the very countries in which it was recognized as 
the symbol of all that is deadly it was also recognized as the symbol of 
life. And as it was early discovered that the most valuable medicines are 
poisons, the serpent, as the very "personification of poison," was looked 
upon as not only the symbol of all that is deadly, but also of all that is 
health-giving. And so it has continued to be, even to our own days, the 
recognized symbol of the healing art, and, wreathed round a staff, as 
Moses had it, it may still be seen sculptured on our own hospitals and 
schools of medicine. 



The Brazen Serpent an Illustration of Christ. — (1) Its design 
was the same, to save suffering, sinful, dying men. (2) It was made in 
the form of the fiery serpents, but was itself perfectly harmless. So 
Christ was made sin for us, took the form of our sinful human 
nature, was subject to human conditions, j r et without sin. (3) Like 
the serpent, Christ was lifted up upon the cross to draw all men unto 
Him. Christ crucified is the most conspicuous object in the history 
of the world. It is the center around which the whole moral and 
religious warfare of the world is gathered. It is the Alcyone around 
which all the stars of heaven are circling. So that by both enemies and 
friends the cross is made prominent, and all may hear of the Saviour. 
(4) The power of healing was not in the serpent, but in God through the 
serpent. The cross has no power in itself, but God has there shown His 
infinite love and power for salvation. 



Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, on the cross, and through 
that to glory. 



88 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS III 19-1 5 

The Shadow of the Cross. — "Ina well-known picture, a modern 
painter has given an imaginary incident in the youth of our Lord. It 
is the carpenter's shop. Boards sawn for use are propped against the 
walls, the floor is strewn with chips and curls of wood and heaps of 
sawdust, various tools mingle in the confusion, or are placed in the rack 
ready for use. Mary is kneeling close beside the Christ, the level rays 
of the setting sun strike through the casement, and as the young 
carpenter draws Himself to His full height and extends his arms, a 
shadow as of one crucified is thrown on the opposite wall. Mary, at 
least, sees that shadow of the cross. The shadow of the cross rests on all 
the incidents and words of His public life. Nowhere does the sun of His 
life shine in a clear sky. The darkness is denser here and thinner there, 
but it is everywhere ; ' as the twilight creeps noiselessly into evening's 
sunniest nooks, and quietly masters all the land without the winnowing 
of its silken wing being heard or seen.' Calvary is a low hill ; but it 
casts a long shadow." — F. B. Meyer, D. D. 



15. Whosoever Believeth in Him . . . Eternal Life. 



Christian's First View of the Crucified One. — When his long car- 
ried burden fell from his shoulders, " then was Christian glad and 
lightsome, and said with a merry heart, ' He has given me rest by sor- 
row, and life by His death.' Then he stood a while to look and wonder ; 
for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus 
ease him of his burden. He looked, therefore, and looked again, even 
till the springs that were in his head sent the water down his cheeks. 
Now as he stood looking and weeping, behold three shining ones came 
to him and saluted him with ' Peace be to thee ; ' so the first said to him, 
' Thy sins be forgiven thee ; ' the second stripped him of his rags, and 
clothed him with change of raiment ; the third also set a mark on his 
forehead, and gave him a roll with a seal on it, which he bid him look 
on as he ran, and that he should give it in at the celestial gate ; so they 
went their way." — Pilgrim's Progress. 



The Source of Lovely Character. — " There lived once a young 
girl whose perfect grace of character was the wonder of those who 
knew her. She wore on her neck a gold locket which no one was ever 
allowed to open. One day, in a moment of unusual confidence, one of 
her companions was allowed to touch its spring and learn its secret. 
She saw written these words : ' Whom having not seen 1 love.'' That 
was the secret of her beautiful life. She had been changed into the 
same image." — Prof. Henry Drummond in Tlie Changed Life. 



111:9-15 



ST. JOHN 



8 9 



Faith and Salvation. — A check, no matter how 
wealthy the man that signed it, is not of any use 
unless the one who possesses it has faith enough to 
present it. The doctor cannot cure a man who will 
not trust him enough to take his medicine and follow 
his directions. A guide cannot lead one through 
forest and desert unless he trusts him enough to follow 
his guidance. 



" John Habberton tells us of a preacher who visited 
a sick man whose house was filled with poisonous 
gases from a neglected drain. Talking of faith the 
preacher said to him, ' You don't need to use more 
faith, but you do need to use some chloride of lime on 
that drain if you want to get well.' " — H. L. Hastings. 
The faith that works is the faith that saves. 



A. ». 27. 

April. Time 

of Passover, 

•which was 

April 9-16, that 

year. 

FIRST YEAR. 
THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

JERUSALEM 

IN AN UPPER 
CHAMBER. 
The First 
Recorded 
Discourse 
of Jesus. 

Nicodemus, 
and tlie 

New Birth. 



Look Up, — A man once dreamed that he was in a deep pit, sinking 
fast in the mire ; feet, knees, body, neck, gone down beneath the sur- 
face, when he heard a voice, " Look up.'" Looking up he saw a star, 
and, while gazing at it, he began to rise. Then, congratulating himself 
on his escape, he turned his eyes from the star to himself, and immedi- 
ately he began to sink again. All efforts of his own to rise but sank 
him deeper ; and, when almost gone, he again heard the voice, " Look 
up." Then once more gazing at the heavenly star, he began to rise 
higher and higher till he was almost free ; then, turning to help himself 
and to remove the mire clinging to him, he forgot to look up, and again 
he sank. Once more the voice came, "Look up ; for only while you 
look you rise.'" And looking steadfastly, he rose from the mire and 
was saved. 



There is life for a look at the crucified One, 
There is life at this moment for thee ; 

Then look, sinner, look unto Him and be saved, — 
Unto Him who was nailed to the tree ! " 



The faith of the Head 
Is the faith that is dead 
The faith of the Heart 
Is better in part ; 



90 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS III : l6 



16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso- 
ever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

" But the faith of the Hand 
Is the faith that will stand; 
For the faith that will do 
Must include the first two." 



Christ's Cure of the Paralytic (Luke 5: 18-26) is an illustration of 
true faith, not merely "a strong conviction of any doctrine about 
Christ, but a strong trust and confidence in Christ," founded on what 
they believed about Him, not philosophically, but practically. They 
could not have confidence in Him unless they had some true faith about 
Him, and the truer their faith about Him, the stronger their confidence 
in Him. (2.) Faith is necessary in order that the sinner may be led to go 
to Christ. (3.) It is necessary because it is the accepting of the forgive- 
ness. It is the taking God at His word when He promises to for- 
give. (4.) It shows a state of heart and mind which makes it safe to 
forgive. Otherwise forgiveness would increase sin, not remove it. (5.) 
Whosoever has real faith in Jesus will forsake and hate sin and love 
and obey his Lord and Saviour. 



Run, John, and work, the Law commands, 

Yet finds me neither feet nor hands ; 

But sweeter news the Gospel brings, 

It bids me fly and lends me wings." — John Berridge. 



One Faith, Many Experiences. —" Unhappily the experience of 
John Bunyan or of some other person, has been erected into a standard 
by which that of other men is tried ; and in some regions a Christian will 
be asked, ' Were you long in the Slough of Despond?' as though the 
Slough of Despond were a Divine institution, and the only way of sal- 
vation lay through it. Andrew Fuller put the question to an aged saint, 
who replied, ' I was never there at all, sir ; I went straight to the cross 
of Christ.' That was the Scriptural way ; and it is to be remarked that 
the Scriptures place nothing between the sinner and the cross, nor do 
they clog the free message with a single qualifying condition. Believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved ! " — Biblical Illus- 
trator. 



16 . God so Loved the World. — Luther calls this verse The Little 
Gospel, or The Little Bible. For the whole gospel, yea the whole 
Bible, is condensed in these few words: 



Ill: 16 



ST. JOHN 



9 1 



On the tiny retina of the eye is pictured a wide 
extended landscape in its minutest details — mount- 
ains, rivers, forests, fields, cities, villages. 

Peter Bayles, in the days of Queen Elizabeth, wrote 
the whole Bible in so small a space that it could be 
enclosed in the shell of a common walnut. 

In our day, I am told that the whole Bible has been 
photographed on thin plates, so that altogether it 
would make a package only as large as a fair-sized 
pea. 

So the whole Bible, the whole gospel, the whole 
scheme of redemption is condensed into the few words 
of this verse. 

This verse is said to be " the best thing ever put in 
human speech." "Infinite riches in a little room." 
The treasure room of the London Tower. The salon 
care of the Louvre. 



A. D. 27. 

April. Time 

of Passover, 

which was 

Aj>ril '9-16, that 

year. 

FIRST YEAR. 
THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

JERUSALEM. 

IN AX UPPER 
CHAMBER. 
The First 
Recorded 
Discourse 
of Jesus. 

Nicodemus, 
and the 

New Birth. 



God So Loved. — Harry Morehouse once preached for seven consecu- 
tive nights on that wonderful word "so;" for in it is summed up all 
the Father and Son have done for the salvation of the world. — A. F. 
Schauffler, D. D. 



The Sum of All Lotes. — If an angel were to fly swiftly over the 
earth on a summer morning, while the pearly dew of heaven rested on 
the flowers, and go into every garden — the king's, the rich man's, the 
peasant's, the child's — and were to bring from each the choicest, love- 
liest, sweetest flower that blooms in each, and gather them all in one 
cluster in his radiant hands, what a beautiful bouquet it would be ! 
And if an angel were to fly swiftly over the earth into every sweet and 
holy home, into every spot where one heart yearns over another, and 
were to take out of every father's heart, and every mother's heart, 
and out of every heart that loves, its holiest flower of affection, and 
gather all into one cluster, what a blessed love-garland would he behold! 
What a holy love would this aggregation of all earth's loves be! Yet 
infinitely sweeter and holier than this grouping of all earth's holiest 
affections, is the love that fills the heart of our Father in heaven. 



The Weather- cock. — Mr. Spurge on saw on a country weather-cock 
what he thought was a strange motto, " God is Love," and asked his 
friend if he meant to imply that the divine love can be fickle as the 
wind. " No," said he, " this is what I mean — whichever way the wind 
blows, God is love; through the cold north wind, the biting east wind, 



92 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS III : 16 

still God is love, as much as when the warm, genial breezes refresh our 
fields and flocks." God loves men so that He uses every possible means 
for their salvation. The greatest is His love in Jesus Christ. He sends 
joys and sorrows, both to bring us to our Saviour. 



The Marvelous Love of God. — It has been objected to the gospel 
that it was not possible that the Infinite God, having created countless 
worlds so immense that this world is but a grain of sand to them, should 
select this little obscure corner of the universe as the place where His 
only Son should become flesh, live and die for the salvation of the 
minute inhabitants thereof. Even Christians feel the power of this 
difficulty. But note (1) the opposite aspect of creation. The micro- 
scope reveals thousands of living creatures perfectly formed and cared 
for in a drop of water. There are 100,000 million, million, million 
atoms in a cubic inch of gas, each one perfectly made. Now if God is 
so great that He can care for each of these, how much more will He 
care for the immortal souls He has created. (2) It is altogether prob- 
able that the work of redemption for the universe is done in this world: 
that here is raging the great battle between good and evil, for all worlds 
and all times. But the magnitude of the issue has nothing to do with 
the size of the battle-field. Who counts the inhabitants of Waterloo, 
or Bunker Hill, or Sebastopol, in order to learn what was done on those 
battle-fields ? (3) The sympathy and thought of a family always goes 
forth most freely to the helpless, the sick, the wandering ones. So it is 
in the great family of God. All the good in the universe naturally turn 
to this lost and sinful and sorrowing world. 



Micromegas. — Look down at one of the nests of those smallest ants, 
which are made in our paths. It is very hard to think of ourselves as 
relatively smaller than such insects, and that less than such an anthill 
is to the whole landscape, is our solar system itself in comparison 
with the visible universe. 

" When the traveler from the great star Sirius (where, according to 
the author of Micromegas all the inhabitants are proportionally tall, 
and proportionally long lived) discovered our own little solar system, 
and lighted on what we call the majestic planet Saturn, he wa3 
naturally astonished at the pettiness of everything compared with the 
world he had left. That the Saturnian inhabitants were in his eyes a 
mere race of dwarfs (they were only a mile high, instead of 24 miles 
like himself) did not make them contemptible to his philosophic mind, 
for he reflected that such little creatures might still think and reason ; 
but when he learned that these puny beings were also correspondingly 



III:i6 



ST. JOHN 



93 



short lived, and passed but 15,000 years between the 
cradle and the grave, he could not but agree that this 
was like dying as soon as one was born, that their life 
was but a span and their globe an atom. 

" Yet it seems that when one of these very Saturn- 
ian dwarfs came afterwards with him to our own 
little ball, and by the aid of a microscope discovered 
certain anirnalculae on its surface, and even held con- 
verse with two of them, he could not in turn make up 
his mind that intelligence could inhere in such invis- 
ible insects, till one of them (it was an astronomer 
with his sextant) measured his height to an inch, and 
the other, a divine, expounded to him the theology of 
some of these mites, according to which all the 
heavenly host, including Saturn and Sirius himself, 
were created for them." — Prof. S. P. Langley, in 
Century. Feb., 1837. 

Library. — Chalmer's Astronomical Lectures. 



A. D. 27. 

April. Ti)tie 

of Passover, 

-which iv as 

A/riig-i6. that 

year. 

FIRST YEAR. 
THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

JERUSALEM. 

IN AN UPPER 
CHAMBER. 
The First 
Recorded 
Discourse 
of Jesus. 

Xicodemus, 
and the 

New Birth. 



In Raphael's Sistine Madonna the space around the Christ-child is 
filled with angel faces, to show the interest the heavenly world has in 
Him. 



Love the Greatest Thing in the World. — The description of 
Love in 1 Corinthians, 13, shows that love is not merely the " greatest 
thing in the world,'" and the best thing in the world; it is also, in its 
fulness, the hardest thing to attain in the world. The picture in this 
chapter of what human love at its best is, gives us a hint, a faint 
image of what God's love is. 



The Spectrum oe Love. — Professor Drummond says, "Love is a 
compound thing; Paul tells us it is like light. As you have seen a man 
of science take a beam of light and pass it through a crystal prism, as 
you have seen it come out on the other side of the prism broken up into 
its component colors — red and blue, and yellow, and violet, and orange, 
and all the colors of the rainbow — so Paul passes this thing, Love, 
through the magnificent prism of his inspired intellect, and it comes 
out on the other side broken up into its elements. And in these few 
words we have what one might call the Spectrum of Love, the analysis 
of Love. "Will you observe what its elements are ? Will you notice 
that they have common names ; that they are virtues which we hear 
about every day ; that they are things which can be practiced by every 
man in every place in life ; and how by a multitude of small things and 



94 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS III: l6 

ordinary virtues, the supreme thing, the summum bonum, is made up? 
" Light is a something more than the sum of its ingredients — a glow- 
ing, dazzling, tremulous ether. And love is something more than all 
its elements — a palpitating, quivering, sensitive, living thing. By- 
synthesis of all the colors, men can make whiteness, they cannot make 
light. By synthesis of all the virtues, men can make virtue, they can- 
not make love." 

" As every lovely hue is light, 
So every grace is love." 

— From The Greatest Thing in the World. 



Heart Power. — "They tell us," said Wendell Philips in one of his 
speeches, " that this heart of mine which beats so unremittingly in this 
bosom, if its force could be directed against a granite pillar, would 
wear it to dust in the course of a man's life. Your capitol is marble, 
but the pulse of every human mind is beating against it. God will give 
us time, and the pulses of men shall beat it down." Such is a hint of 
the mighty power of God's love beating against the stony hearts of 
men. If anything can touch and soften them, or wear away their sin 
it is the love of God. 



Love Leading to Repentance. — "A pious physician had access to a 
jail, and tried to minister both to the souls and bodies of his patients in 
prison. 

One day he pleaded with a murderer to seek pardon. He urged all 
the motives of the Gospel to repentance he could command, and threw 
his whole soul into the plea. The murderer was cold and obdurate : 
excused his crimes by quoting the example of David, Solomon and 
other Scripture characters. In fine, he said, " I don't know that I have 
much to repent of." 

This from a murderer was terrible. Anxious, however, to do all he could, 
the physician invited a dear friend — an aged, devoted man — to visit 
him. The old man consented ; and when the doctor again ventured 
into his cell he was surprised to hear him say : 

4 Doctor, you don't understand your business. You come here to do 
good — to benefit the souls of us poor prisoners ; but you don't go about 
it right. You always urged me to ' repent — to repent ; ' but, doctor, 
do you suppose there is one poor fellow in this prison who doesn't know 
he must repent if he would be saved ? That dear old friend of yours 
that you left behind understood his business. He came here ; sat right 
down by my side. He looked, indeed, like a really good man. With a 
look full of tenderness, he said to me, ' John, wasn't it gracious good- 
ness on the part of the Almighty that he should have loved us so much 






Ill: 16 



ST. JOHN 



95 



as to send his only and well- beloved son into the world 
to save such sinners as you and I?' Why, doctor, that 
word ' /' killed me — it killed me dead. I couldn't get 
over it. That that holy man should put himself on 
the same level with me — a vile murderer, neither fit 
to live nor die ! I cannot keep it out of my thoughts. 
It is working its way to my heart.' " — Christian at 
Work. 

Reference. — The Legend of St. John and the 
Robber. Pa°;e . 



*- 



A. D.27 

April. Time 

of Passover^ 

which was 

April 9-16, that 

year. 

FIRST YEAR. 
THE YEAR OF 

BEGINNINGS. 

JERUSALEM 
IN AN UPPER 
CHAMBER. 
The First 
Recorded 
Discourse 
Beauty and the Beast. — (The following sugges- of Jesus. 

tion is from an editorial in the Sunday School Times). Nl and e the S ' 

" It is a quaint conceit, that story of ' Beauty and the New Birth. 

Beast,' and it is a strangely attractive one. It has even 

been called 'the most beautiful of all nursery tales.' 

And, like many another fairy tale or folk-lore myth, this attractive 

story contains an important truth, a germinal principle, enfolded in its 

figures of speech. 

" ' Beauty ' is a lovely young woman, whose loveliness of spirit gives 
added charm to her loveliness of outer being. She is unselfish and 
tender-hearted, and ever prompt to see the best in others and to minister 
to their necessities. In her loving desire to be of service to her father, 
she finds herself in an enchanted palace, where the host is a repulsive 
appearing 'Beast.' Instinctively she shrinks from one of so unlovely 
exterior ; but she recognizes in him a reverent devotion to herself, and 
an ever watchful and considerate affection toward her, coupled with a 
certain sadness of heart as if in personal trial and suffering ; and her 
habit of generously seeing and approving the best in others, causes her 
to view even the repulsive ' Beast ' with kindly interest, and to be 
grateful for his loyalty in her service. 

' ' Cheered and encouraged by her favor, Beast ventures to draw nearer 
to Beauty in his reverent devotion. At length, overcoming her antip- 
athy, she begins to love the soul hidden beneath the unattractive appear- 
ance. No sooner does Beauty love Beast as he is, than he is transformed 
into a handsome youth and she has a lover prince." 

Is not this a type of the transforming power of the love of God for 
sin-defiled man ? God sees the best in him, the dim reflections of His 
own image, the prophecy of all that he may become, the glorious fruit- 
age of the seeds of possibilities in his soul. 

" Look long enough 
On any peasant's face here, coarse and lined,— 
You'll catch Ant'noiis somewhere in that clay, 



g6 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS III : l6 

As perfect-featured as he yearns at Rome 
From marble pale with beauty ; then persist, 
And if your comprehension's competent, 
You'll find some fairer angel at his back, 
And much exceeding him as he the boor, 
And pushing him with empyreal disdain 
Forever out of sight." 

And when the man is conscious of this wonderful love of one so 
unworthy, his heart begins to change, and his nature to be transformed 
by love. 



God's Love the Source op Salvation— " God Gave." — There has 
been an impression that Christ came to make God love men instead of 
hating them. One or two of our hymns, wrongly understood, have 
favored this impression. But here we are told that God's love was the 
origin of salvation for men ; that Christ came because God loved men 
before he came. Tennyson's poem, " The Victim," expresses the 
demand of Odin and Thor for a victim, but bears no resemblance to the 
feelings of God, who gave up His Son because He loved men. 



The Atonement. — The atonement has been called an unjust and 
mean doctrine, because it allows another to suffer in our stead. But 
look at it a moment. Two things are necessary to the atonement. (1) 
That the being who makes the atonement shall be so closely related to 
God, that the suffering shall express God's feeling against sin. The 
sufferings of man, or angel, or the archangel nearest the throne, could 
not do this. Only God's own Son, only God Himself, can make an 
effectual atonement, and save the sinner while he vindicates the law. 
(2) The atonement must be voluntary. For God to force any innocent 
person to suffer for the sins of another, would be unjust in the extreme. 
When the Greeks were besieging Troy, and met with ill success, the 
priest, Calchas, told them that the only way to appease the offended 
goddess, and gain the victory, was to sacrifice to Diana, Iphigenia, the 
beautiful daughter of King Agamemnon. And these brave men of old 
are said to have taken her by strategy and force, and brought this inno- 
cent girl to the altar to slay her in their stead. This sacrifice (though 
she was rescued) was unworthy of them, was mean and unjust in the 
extreme. But whenever any persons have offered themselves, as Hora- 
tius and his comrades at the bridge of Rome, or the nobles of Calais to 
Henry the Sixth, the sacrifice was the height of heroism. This is the 
soul of greatness and goodness in all ages. We did not compel Christ, 
God did not compel him, but he freely offered Himself for us; and the 



Ill : 16 



ST. JOHN 



97 



only meanness or injustice is not to love Him and 4 
serve Him for it with all our hearts. 



The Contrast. — " This attitude of God toward the 
world is in suggestive contrast with that in which the 
gods of paganism are represented. 

Thus Juno says to Vulcan: 

' Dear son, refrain: it is not well that thus 
A god should suffer for the sake of men.' 

< Iliad,' xxi., 379, 380. 
And Apollo to Neptune: 

Thou would'st not deem me wise, should 

I contend 
With thee, O Neptune, for the sake of men, 
Who nourish like the forest-leaves awhile, 
And feed upon the fruits of earth, and then 
Decay and perish. Let us quit the field, 
And leave the combat to the warring hosts.' 

' Iliad,' xxi., 461, 



A. ». 27. 

April. Time 

of Passover \ 

•which was 

April 9-16, that 

year. 

FIRST YEAR. 
THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

JERUSALEM. 

IN AN UPPER 
CHAMBER. 
The First 
Recorded 
Discourse 
of Jesus. 

Nicodemus, 
and the 

New Birth. 



467. 



Man has no assurance of forgiveness even when he offers the sacri- 
fices in which the gods especially delight. ' Man's sin and the Divine 
punishment therefor are certain; forgiveness is uncertain, dependent 
upon the arbitrary caprice of the gods. Human life is a life without the 
certainty of grace ' (Nagelsbach, ' Homerische Theologie '). Mr. Glad- 
stone observes: ' No Homeric deity ever will be found to make a per- 
sonal sacrifice on behalf of a human client' (' Homer and the Homeric 
Age,' ii., 365)."— M. R. Vincent, in Word Studies. 



A Royal Gift. — Plutarch, the Greek historian, tells a story to this 
effect: " An ancient king once gave a present of a large sum of money 
to a personal friend, and was gently taken to task for his generosity. 
'What!* was his astonished exclamation, ' would you not have me be 
liberal? Let the world know that when the king gives he gives gener- 
ously, like a king.'" 



The Proof of God's Love. — There is no other certain proof of 
God's perfect love for all men than this. Nature gives us many hints of 
God's love; bat there is so much which is terrible, which seems contrary 
to love, that we cannot be sure that God loves us, except by this gift of 
His Son. The argument is irrefutable, a morning star shining unclouded 
7 



98 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS III : 1 7-2 1 



17. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world ; but that the 
world through him might be saved. 

18. H He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is 
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten 
Son of God. 

19. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men 
loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 

20. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, 
lest his deeds should be reproved. 

21. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made 
manifest, that they are wrought in God. 

in every dark night of trouble. " He that spared not His own Son, but 
delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give 
us all things ? " — (Rom. 8: 32.) 

" Could we with ink the ocean fill, 

Were all the sky of parchment made, 
Were every single stick a quill, 

And every man a scribe by trade, — 
To write the love of God above 

Would drain the ocean dry, 
Nor could the scroll contain the whole 

Though stretched from sky to sky.'' 

17. God Sent Not His Son Into the World to Condemn the 
World. — " A great American writer has told us that when he was a 
boy the conception of God which he got from books and sermons was 
that of a wise and very strict lawyer. I remember well the awful con- 
ception of God which I got when I was a boy. I was given an illus- 
trated edition of Watts' hymns, and amongst others there was one 
hymn which represented God as a great piercing eye in the midst of a 
great black thunder cloud. The idea of God which that picture gave to 
my young imagination was of a great detective playing the spy upon 
my actions ; as the hymn says : 

' Writing now the story of what little children do.' 

That was a bad book, and a bad idea which it has taken me years to 
obliterate." — Prof. Drummond, in A Life for a Life, "The Augelus." 
(Revell). 

I had something of the same feeling in my own childhood, drawn 
not from the teaching I received, but from such stories as that of 
the father taking his son to steal apples, and after he had looked on all 
sides to see if any one saw them, the boy said, Father, you forgot to 



Ill : 17-21 



ST. JOHN 



99 



look up ; and that of the astronomer seeing with his 
telescope some boys seven miles away robbing an 
orchard. It was a long time before I realized that 
God saw the good as well as the bad, that He was far 
more anxious to see the good than the bad in us, that 
He might cherish every faintest desire to be better, 
and fan the flame of every flickering spark of aspira- 
tion and longing for Him. 



A.D. 27. 

April. Time 

of Passover^ 

which was 

April 9-16, that 

year. 

FIRST YEAR. 
THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

JERUSALEM. 

IN AN UPPER 
CHAMBER. 
The First 
Recorded 
Discourse 
of Jesus. 

Nicodemus, 
and the 

New Birth. 



18. Condemned Already, as a ship is condemned 
because unfit to sail ; condemned by his own con- 
science and the law^ of God, as a sinner unfit for heaven. 
" The condemnation here spoken of is not of the judge, 
but of the architect. It is a customary thing to 
appoint a committee to examine a bridge or a build- 
ing, but if either is condemned as unfit for use, 
the architect merely proclaims that repair is needed ; he refers to 
the past, not to the future. He says, not that they are to be 
destroyed, but that he will not guarantee them for a single moment, 
that the hall or building is not safe for a meeting-place, and that the 
bridge is not fit to be a vehicle of commerce between man and man. The 
whole word lies in the word already. Some here may have read that 
wonderful story of George Eliot's, 'Daniel Deronda,' and remember the 
marvelous character in it, Mordecai, who, by the mysticism of his 
mind, is represented as having gone back. He became possessed with the 
idea that he was a bridge over which the whole world was passing ; he 
felt the feet trampling over his life, and they weighed him down with 
agony. Never was Mordecai so little of the madman as when he pos- 
sessed that thought. Whether we realize it or not, the idea is true. 
Every one is a bridge for the whole world. The world would not have 
been the same if you had not lived, and what is that but saying you 
are a means of transport for the generations ? Therefore it is of the 
more value that some are labeled, 'Condemned already;' to hear a 
voice warning us back from the gilded parapet, from the painted 
structure, from the gaudy edifice ; for the frail planks are ready to fall 
into the mighty cauldron, seething below. Stand back until the rotten 
materials are renewed and welded together." — G. Matheson, D. D. 



Every One That Doeth Evil Hateth the Light. — Turn over a 
slab of stone or rotting wood, and you will see thousand of insects that 
flee in every direction to escape the light and who would soon perish 
beneath the direct rays of the sun. Place the slab upon the green sward, 
and in a few days the grass and flowers beneath will turn yellow as if 
to die. 



IOO SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS III : 22-30 

22. IT After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea; and 
then he tarried with them, and baptized. 

23. If And John also was baptizing in Enon near to Salim, because there was 
much water there: and they came, and were baptized. 

24. For John was not yet cast into prison. 

25. If Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews 
about purifying. 

26. And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee 
beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all 
men come to him. 

27. John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him 
from heaven. 

28. Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I 
am sent before him. 

29. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom : but the friend of the bridegroom 
which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's 
voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. 

30. He must increase, but I must decrease. 

The Furies. — "The Greeks gave to the Erinyes, the Furies of the 
Romans, the name 'Eumenides' (The Well-disposed Ones). It is a 
puzzle to explain why the Greeks should have given this name to the 
' Erinyes ' (Furies), depicted as terrible avengers of crime, armed with 
scourges, and with serpents entwined in their hair. The new Diction- 
ary of Classical Literature and Antiquities gives us the traditional 
explanation of this as a euphemism, bestowed on these tremendous 
avengers when they ceased from tormenting Orestes, upon his acquittal 
by the Areopagus of the crime of matricide. It also tells us that the 
Greeks took the word Erinys to be derived from one or other of various 
words signifying to pursue or be angry. That the Rev. G. W. Cox, a 
disciple of Professor Max Miiller, has given in his Comparative Mythol- 
ogy something more substantial than these old guesses we are quite 
convinced, though well aware how Professor Whitney has chaffed him 
for some extravagances. Erinys is the Greek form of the Sanskrit 
S.-icinyu, a name given to the dawn goddess Uslias, and descriptive of 
the light creeping up the sky. It is in the thought of the graciousness 
of the dawn that the name of the Erinys, the Well disposed, originated. 
But there is nothing so dreaded by the guilty as the light which exposes 
him. Hence the transformation of the S; in sk rit dawn-goddess into the 
Greek conception of the Erinys, as hunting the criminal to the death." 
— Review of the "Dictionary of Classical Literature." 



20. He That Hath the Bride, etc. — " In the marriage customs of 
the East is an explanation of this verse, as given in Dr. Trumbull's 



Ill: 31-36 



ST. JOHN 



IOI 



31. He that cometh from above is above all:, he that is of 
the earth is earthly, and .speaketh of the earth : he that cometh 
from heaven is above all. 

32. And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth ; and 
no man receiveth his testimony. 

33. He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal 
that God is true. 

34. For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God : 
for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Mm. 

35. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into 
his hand. 

36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and 
he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath 
him. 



A. ». 27. 

Summer and 
Autumn. 

FIRST YEAR. 
YEAR OF 

BEGINNINGS. 

JUDEA. 
Jesus and 

J oil II. 

Disciples of 

Jesus 

Begin to 

Baptise. 



* 

of God abideth on 



Studies in Oriental Social Life, pp. 60-63. It is toward the close of the 
long ceremonials and processions that the bridegroom, escorted to the 
door of his bride's apartments, enters and is permitted to lift the veil 
of her who became his wife by betrothal. It is perhaps the first time 
that either has seen the other's face. All the possibilities of a lifetime 
center then in a single look. If the Oriental bridegroom is satisfied 
with his bride, when her veil has been lifted, he goes to the outer door 
of her room and announces his hearty ratification of the match that 
has been made for him by his representatives. This announcement is 
immediately taken up by the women who are waiting outside, and 
their cries of joy send the knowledge of it to watchful listeners far and 
near. Among those whose hearts are thrilled with gladness by the wel- 
come intelligence that the bridegroom is made happy in the possession 
of his bride, no one can be more keenly grateful than • the friend of the 
bridegroom,' who has conducted the negotiations which led to this 
event. ' His joy is fulfilled.' ' He must increase, but I must decrease.' 
The friend of the bridegroom has no longer a mission when the bride- 
groom's true mission is entered upon. John's work was done when the 
work of Jesus was begun." — H. C. Trumbull. 



My Triumph. — 

" Others shall sing the song, 
Others shall right the wrong, 
Finish what I begin, 
And all I fail to win. 



What matter, I or they ? 
Mine or another's clay, 
So the right word be said, 
And life the sweeter made ? " 
— Whittier. 



34. Giveth Not His Spirit by Measure (see on 1:16). — ''The 
philosophic Hamerton tells us the story of a woman who worked in a 



102 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATONS 111:31-36 

cotton factory in one of the great manufacturing towns in Lancashire, 

and who, in an excursion, went for the first time to the coast. When 

she caught the earliest glimpse of the Irish Sea, the expanse lying out 

before her eyes looking like the limitlessness of the ocean 

in its rush and roll of billows, she exclaimed, as she drew "Enough of 

one boundless breath of freshness and glory, ' At last, here Something." 

comes something there is enough of ! ' Those who come to 

the boundless abundance of the Gospel, who look out on the wide, 

fathomless sea of infinite love, may say, with a thousand fold more 

emphasis and delight, ' At last, here comes something there is enough 

of!' 

' Enough for each, enough for all, 

Enough forevermore.' " — C. S. Robinson, LL. D. 



IV : 1-4 



ST. JOHN 



IO3 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE WATER OF LIFE. 



1. When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had 
heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than 
John, 

2. (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) 

3. He left Judea, and departed again into Galilee. 

4. And he must needs go through Samaria. 



A. D. 2T. 

December. 

CLOSE OF THE 
FIRST YEAR. 

THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

Discourse 
with the 
Woman of 

Samaria. 



4. He Must Needs Go Through Samaria. —It is 
interesting to note how many and how great things 
come into our lives incidentally and aside from the 
direct purpose we are pursuing, just as this whole chapter with 
its teachings was, in God's providence, an incident in a simple and 
necessary journey. See what has grown out of Livingstone's explora- 
tions, and Stanley's search for him. See what has grown out of Colum- 
bus' effort to find a shorter passage to India. Many of our best 
inventions were the incidental result of a search for other things. 
Many most useful and helpful things are by products, as for instance in 
the case of petroleum. 



Jesus Being Wearied with His Journey. — " There is a certain 
comfort in knowing that Jesus was weary, that He grew tired as His 
work pressed Him, that He felt the need of rest and longed for it. It 
sometimes seems as if we ought to feel stronger than we do, and as if 
we were to blame for not being able to bear up without giving way to 
weariness. But if Jesus felt weariness in His life-work, and yielded to it 
without sinning, we also are entitled to be tired and to take rest, as a 
part of our likeness to Christ." — H. G. Trumbull. 



Weary in, Not Weary of —George Whitefield, as he was going out 
to preach in Exeter, N. H , the sermon which proved his last, being 
"more fit to go to bed than to preach," looked up and said, " Lord 
Jesus, I am weary in Thy work, but not weary of it. If I have not yet 
finished my course, let me go and speak for Thee once more in the fields, 
seal Thy truth, and come home and die." 



104 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV : 1-4 

The Quality of the Water in Jacob's Well. — "The question why 
the wonian of Samaria should have gone to such a distance as Jacob's 
well when a copious fountain gushed forth from the mountain side 
close by, does not present any difficulties to any one familiar with the 
locality and the people. The waters of Jacob's well have a great local 
reputation for purity and flavor amongst the natives of El-Askar and 
Nablus. The excellence of various supplies of water and their respective 
qualities are a favorite topic of conversation with Easterns, and in a hot 
climate, and where other beverages are almost unknown, it is not sur- 
prising to find that the natives are great connoisseurs as to the quality 
of water. Pure water is the universal beverage, in Mohammedan dis- 
tricts at any rate, coffee, lemonade, etc., being reserved solely for guests 
and special occasions. The people, therefore, as we should expect, have 
a keen appreciation of the various qualities of different waters, to a 
degree which we can scarcely realize in more favored climes. 

" The numerous springs of water at Nablus are, from the nature of 
the soil, mostly of very hard water, very 'heavy,' as the natives express 
it. They not unjustly attribute many of their complaints to this cause, 
and speak with longing of the ' light ' waters of Gaza and various 
other places. 

" Now Jacob's well has a reputation amongst them of containing 
cool, palatable, and refreshing water, free from the deleterious qualities 
of their other supplies of water. Frequently I have been told that after 
eating a hearty meal (and a hearty meal with them is something 
appalling ! ) a good draught of water from this particular well will dis- 
perse the feeling of abnormal fulness in a remarkably short space of 
time, and, moreover, make one ready for another good meal in an 
incredibly short space of time. 

" The copious fountain at El-Askar gushes forth from the very bowels 
of rocky (limestone) Mount Ebal, and is therefore of particularly hard 
('heavy') water. The woman, would, therefore, gladly take her jar to 
this celebrated well for a supply of drinking water. 

"Although thirty feet and more of rubbish has found its way into 
Jacob's well, the supply of water even now lasts till the month of May, 
most years, or even later. The source of supply to this well has not yet 
been accurately ascertained, but it is doubtless greatly due to percolation 
and rainfall. The latter may account partly for some of its special 
qualities as to 'lightness' (softness). 

" It is not uncommon in the east to send to a great distance for a sup- 
ply of drinking water, as you may know, especially by those who can 
afford to do so. The woman of Samaria may. if poor, have been hired 
to convey the water for some richer person. When at Nablus I used to 
send to a certain spring some miles or so from my house for drinking 



IV : 5, 6 ST. JOHN I05 



5. Then cometh lie to a city of Samaria, which is called 
Svchar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his 
son Joseph. 

6. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being 
wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well : and it was 
about the sixth hour. 



A. D. 27. 

December. 

CLOSE OF THE 
FIRST YEAR. 
THE YEAR OF 

BEGINNINGS. 

Discourse 
with, the 

Woman of 
Samaria. 



water, and soon quite a regular little cavalcade 
repaired to this spring every morning and evening to 
supply the richer families with water which the Eng- 
lish doctors recommended ! Bishop Blyth, of Jerusalem, sends three 
miles from Jerusalem, to Ain Karim, for his water supply." — Dr. Henry 
Baily. of the Church Missionary Society at Nablus. Quarterly state- 
ment Palestine exploration fund. 

Sat Thus on the Well. — As God has made the world full of streams 
to satisfy our bodily thirst, so He has made it full of springs to satisfy 
our natural longings and desires. And by every fountain of earthly 
good Jesus still sits, pointing men to the higher and better things of 
which it is a hint and a type. By earthly pleasure He would point to 
heavenly and spiritual joy; by earthly riches He would teach us of 
treasures in heaven; by earthly love He would point to heavenly love; 
by earthly desires to heavenly desires; by earthly activity and business 
to zeal and earnestness in the kingdom of God. 



Jabob's Well a Type. — Jacob's well was originally considerably 
more than 100 feet in depth, with living water at the bottom. Maundrell 
in 1697 reports it as then 105 feet deep with 15 feet of water. Later 
measurements, by Dr. Wilson, in 1848; by Capt. S. Anderson, R. E. , in 
1866, and Lieut. Conder, in 1875, make it 75 feet deep, and usually no 
water appears on the surface in the summer; because the well has been 
filled in with an accumulation of rubbish and stones. 

Capt. Anderson, who was let down into the well by a rope, with 
great difficulty, found " a little pitcher lying at the bottom unbroken, 
and this was an evidence of there being water in the well at some sea- 
sons, as the pitcher would have been broken had it fallen upon the 
stones." He says: "It is probable that the well was very much deeper 
in ancient times, for in ten years it had decreased ten feet in depth. 
Every one visiting the well throws stones down for the satisfaction of 
hearing them strike the bottom, and in this way. as well as from the 
debris of the ruined church built ever the well during the fourth cen- 
tury, it has become filled up to probably more than a half of its original 
depth." 



106 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV : 7, 8 

7. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water; Jesus saitb unto her, Give 
me to drink. 

8. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat,.; 

This well was a type of the Samaritan religion. Originally they had 
the living water of the live books of Moses, and drank from them as 
Jacob and his eons did from the water of the Shechem well. But the 
water became stagnant. They never went beyond Moses, and tasted of 
the fresher waters of the prophets. The well became filled up with 
forms, and prejudices, and the mere outward letter of the law, till the 
pure waters were largely covered up. 

Is there not the same danger for us to-day ? 

7, 8. A Little School. — Jesus was the teacher. He had one scholar, 
a disreputable women of voluble tongue, a very unlikely scholar. But 
Jesus taught as faithfully, as freely, with as large and glorious truth, as 
if He were speaking to a multitude. He taught in a conversational man- 
ner. " The Fourth Gospel may be called the Gospel of the Conversa- 
tions." He adapted His teaching to His hearers. Compare and contrast 
His method, and the truth He presented to this woman, with the con- 
versation with Nicodemus. He was successful, for He gained His 
scholar ; and she brought other scholars to His teaching. 



Give Me To Drink. A Truce. — "Among us even an enemy might 
ask or receive a drink of water without fear of compromising himself 
or his opponent ; but not so in the East. There the giving and 
receiving of a drink of water is the seeking and the making of a cove- 
nant of hospitality, with all that the covenant implies. It 
is not, indeed, like a covenant of blood, or a covenant of Saladeen 
salt — indissoluble ; but it is like a covenant of bread-sharing, and the 
which makes a truce, for the time being, of the deadliest Drink of 
enemies. Aboolfeda tells, for example, of the different Water, 
receptions awarded by Saladeen to the king of the Franks 
on the one hand, and to Prince Arnald of Caracca on the other, when 
the two Christian leaders were received in his tent by the victorious 
Saracen after the battle of Hatteen. Saladeen seated the Christian king 
by his side, and gave him drink cooled with snow. When 
the king, having tasted it, offered it also to Prince Arnald, Harmozan 
Saladeen protested, saying, "This wretch shall not drink Drinks in 
of the water with my permission ; in which there would be the Pres- 
safety to him ;" and then, rising up, he smote off the head ence of 
of t he prince with his own sword. Over against this we are Omar. 



IV: 7, 8 



ST. tOHK 



10; 



told that when Barmozan, a Persian ruler, surrend- 
ered to the Khaleef Omar, the successor of A boo Bekr, 
and was brought a prisoner into the presence of his 
captor, he asked at once for a drink. Omar asked him 
If be were thirsty. "No, "he said; "I only wish to 
drink in your presence, so that I may be sure of my 
life." Be w;is assured that he might rest, perfectly 
secure; and that assurance was kept." — //. C, Trum- 
butt D. b. 



\. I>. 27. 

December 



i in 



. i 



'i in-. , BAR OJ 
BEGI1 WING .. 

with the 
Woman of 

Samariu. 



The Wise Approach. — Jesus' request was an act of the nicest 
tact. " Flo asks a favor and puts Himself under an obligation. No Line 
of proceeding, it is well known to all wise people, would be more likely 
to conciliate the woman's feelings towards Bim, or to make her willing 
to hear His teaching." — lip. J. C, Ryle. 



So in Bcclesiastes, we are told that the Wise Preacher sought to find 
out acceptable words, words of delight, like" the words of grace " 
which Jesus spoke (Luke iv. : 22;. 



We are reminded of the words of Lucretius : 

" Nam veluti pueris absinthia tetra medentes, 

Cum dare conantur, prius oraa pocula circum 
Contingunt mollis dulci, flavoque liquore, 
Ut puerorum eetas improvida Ludificetur 
Labrorum tenus, interea perpotet amarum 
Absinth! laticem, deceptaque Don capiatur, 
Sed potius tali pacto recreata ralescat." 



Attracting to 
the Truth. 



As those who heal the body, when they seek 

To give to children wormwood's nauseous juice, 
First smear the cup's rim with sweet golden honey, 
That infant's thoughtless age may be beguiled 
Just to the margin's edge, and so may drink 

The' wormwood's hitter draught, beguiled, not tricked, 

Hut rather gain thereby in strength and health." 

Da. Her. Nat. iv. 11-17. — Cambridge Bible on Ecclesiastes. 



The St ah of Bethlehem Mirrored in the Well. — Jesus used the 
common, everyday, natural objects as a means of illustrating and teach- 
ing spiritual and eternal truths. "There is a beautiful tradition regard- 
ing the well of the Wise Men between Jerusalem and Bethlehem — that 



Io8 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV : 9, 10 

9. Then sailh the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, 
askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings 
with the Samaritans. 

10. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who 
it is that saith to thee, drive me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and 
he would have given thee living water. 

when the Eastern Magi had at one time lost the guidance of the Mystic 
Star, while stooping over this fountain, they saw it once more reflected 
in its waters ; forthwith it guided them to the place where the young 
child was — when they saw the star they rejoiced with exceeding great 
joy." — J. R. MacDuff. D. D. So this woman found the star of Bethle- 
hem mirrored in the well at Sychar, and it became to her a fountain of 
salvation, a transfigured well ever after. 



Finding the Best Things in the Course of Daily Duties. — " Like 
the Wise Woman of Medina, this Samaritan woman found the Lord, 
while she was engaged in her common everyday work, of drawing 
water for the laborers in the field. ' It is the devil that meets us when 
we are idle.' The angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds while 
they were keeping watch over their flocks by night ; Matthew was 
called at the receipt of custom ; Peter and Andrew were fishing ; James 
and John were mending their net. Elisha was plowing when Elijah 
cast his mantle upon him, and said, 'Follow me.' Saul was seeking his 
father's asses, when he met with Samuel, who anointed him king over 
Israel." — Wm. Jay, D. D. 



9. The Jews Have no Dealings With the Samaritans socially, 
and in friendly intercourse. This separation was all the more intense 
because they had so much in common. People in the same family and 
near neighbors quarrel in cases when there would be no contention if 
they were not so nearly related. The rivalry between business men is 
far the greatest between those in the same business. Churches that 
are nearly alike often contend together more earnestly than those which 
are their antipodes in faith and forms. 



Jesus Breaking Down Prejudice. — It would not be easy to find in 
modern times a more difficult position as to race, social conditions, and 
religious intolerance than that which Jesus held at this time. He 
wished to gain the Jews to his cause, and yet to converse with this 
woman and with the Samaritans would excite their prejudices against 



IV : 9. IO ST. JOHN IO9 



Him. But He went straight forward in the path of 
duty, leaving the consequences with God. The greater 
the mind, the nobler the character, the more assured 
the position, the less power there is in prejudice. 



Prejudice. — We often look at men not as through 
a clear glass, but as through a colored glass, or as 
reflected in one of those mirrors which distort every 
feature. 



A. ». 27. 

December. 

CLOSE OF THE 
FIRbT YEAR. 
THE YEAR OF 

BEGINNINGS. 

Discourse 

with the 

Woman of 

Samaria. 



The difference is as great between 

The optics seeing as the objects seen. 

All manners take a tincture from our own. 

Or come discolored through our passions shown/' — Pope. 



10. If Thou Knewest. — "A ship, after long buffetings with the 
storm, driven hither and thither, and making no port, was without 
water ; and its crew, fainting with thirst, hailed a passing vessel with 
the cry, ' Water, water ! ' The answer came back, ' Let down your 
buckets ; you are surrounded with fresh water." They were 
off the coast of Brazil, in the outflow of the Amazon, which Ship at the 
pushes its tide of living waters away out into the Atlantic Mouth of 
a hundred miles." — Sunday -School Times. " So we, sur- the Amazon, 
rounded on all hands by God and upheld by Him. and living 
in Him. yet do not know it. and refrain from dipping our buckets and 
drawing out of His life-giving fulness. We pass all our life 'alongside 
of that which would make all eternity different to us, and yet, for lack 
of knowledge, for lack of consideration, for lack often of one hour's 
serious, heart-searching thought, the thin veil continues to hide from 
us our true and lasting blessedness." — Dods. 



"A lady, examining one of Turners pictures, remarked: 'But, Mr. 
T., I do not see these things in nature.' 'Madam,' replied the artist, 
with pardonable naivete, 'don't you wish you did?' She had not the 
trained capacity to see, but the possibility was doubtless in her." 



10, 14. Living Water. A Well of Water Springing up into 
Everlasting Life. — "Life! Life! Eternal life ! " was the cry of 
Christian as he ran from his home in the city of Destruction with his 
fingers in his ears, refusing to look behind him. 



110 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV:II-I4 



11. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the 
well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water ? 

12. Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank 
thereof himself, and his children, and his cuttle? 

13. Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall 
thirst again: 

14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; 
but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water spriuging up 
into everlasting life. 

It is impossible to fancy what is meant by the Tree of Life (in 
Genesis). Like the fabled tree of the Persians, or like that of India, it 
may have yielded the food and drink of immortality. — Geikie. 



Thirsts of the Soul. — Every person has certain great thirsts of the 
soul. He is full of wants, of longings, of desires. He needs love, for- 
giveness, immortal life, the friendship of God, holiness, happiness, 
knowledge, usefulness, heaven, a larger sphere, and broader life. The 
larger the soul, the more and greater are its thirsts. Civilization, prog- 
ress, goodness always increase the thirsts of the soul. The number and 
quality of these thirsts are the measure of the man. 

The greatness of any being is measured (1) by the number of his 
desires and thirsts; (2) by their quality; (3) by their capacity, intensity. 

All growth of the soul is by means of these thirsts and their satis- 
faction . It is a sickly soul that has no appetite. 

Heaven is not the quiet of "Nirvana," but larger vision, more and 
purer desires to be satisfied. You can not be satisfied without the 
desires. Every time we thirst after righteousness, and the thirst is sat- 
isfied, we have a larger vision of what righteousness is, a more 
heavenly thirst, and a larger, fuller, sweeter satisfaction. 

Library.— Compare the discussion between Socrates and Callicles in 
Plato's Gorgias, 494. 

" Socrates : The life, then, of which you are now speaking is not that 
of a dead man, or of a stone, but of a cormorant; you mean that he 
is to be hungering and eating ? 

" Callicles : Yes. 

" Socrates: And he is to be thirsting and drinking? 

"Callicles: Yes, that is what I mean; he is to have all his desires 
about him, and to be able to live happily in the gratification of them." 

This World can Never Satisfy the Soul. — Its an$itions, its 
thirsts after wealth, power, pleasures, are never satisfied by what this 



IV: I I-I4 ST. JOHN III 



A. D. 27. 

December. 

CLOSE OF THE 
FIRST YEAR. 

THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

Discourse 

witli the 

Woman of 

Samaria. 



world can give. Much less can this world satisfy the 
spiritual thirsts of the soul. 

"As the hart panteth- after the water brooks, so 
panteth my soul after thee, O God." 

" Traverse the desert, and then you can tell 
What treasures exists in the cold, deep well. 
Sink in despair on the red, parched earth, 
And then you may reckon what water is 

worth. 'h — — •!- 

The gnawing of hunger's worm is past, 
But fiery thirst lives on to the last." — Eliza Cook. 

Seeking satisfaction in this world is like trying to quench the thirst 
by drinking the salt waters of the sea. The more we drink, the thirstier 
we are. 

It is like a mirage, appearing water while it is a desert. 



Examples. — Solomon tried all that the world can give, and under the 
most favorable circumstances, yet found all to be vanity and vexation 
of spirit ; Byron, with rank and wealth, and all manner of pleasure, 
failed of content and happiness, says : 

" Count o'er the joys thine eyes have seen, 
Count o'er thy days from anguish free, 
And know, whatever thou hast been, 
'Tis something better not to be." 

Alexander conquered the world, but it did not satisfy his soul; and, 
if he could have conquered all the worlds that stud the heavens, he 
would still have wept for more. For God has not created a single human 
soul so small and poor that all the material universe can fill it. All 
literature is full of expressions of the failure of worldly things to satisfy 
the soul. 



Thirst in a Russian Mine. — There is a Russian story of one who 
entered a diamond mine in search of great riches. He filled his pockets 
with great gems, and then threw them away to make room for larger 
ones. At length he became very thirsty, but there was no water there. 
He heard the flow of rivers, but they were rivers of gems ; and he has- 
tened forward at the sound of a waterfall, but it was a cascade of 
jewels. He was very rich in precious stones, but he was dying of thirst, 
and his riches were worse than useless. 



112 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV : 1 1-14 

Library. — Johnson's Rasselas describes one who in the happy valley 
was so discontented that he with great difficulty climbed over the moun- 
tains and escaped. 

Wm. Watson's Poem, The Eloping Angels, suggests a somewhat similar 
idea. 



" They have spent their lives in heaping up colossal piles of treasure, 
which stand, at the end, like the pyramids in the desert sands, holding 
only the dust of kings." — U. W. Beecher. 



"Earthly desires obtain temporary satisfaction, and then resume 
their sway. Our whole life is made up of intermittent desires and partial 
satisfaction, of passion and satiation, of ennui and then of some new 
longing. This flow and ebb, ebb and flow, of desire belong to the very 
nature of human appetite. More than that, human desire is never 
\ really satiated." — Pulpit Commentary. 



The Unsatisfying Nature of Worldly Things. — As a cup of pleas- 
ant wine offered to a condemned man on the way to his execution ; as 
the feast of him who sat under a naked sword hanging perpendicularly 
over his head by a slender thread ; as Adam's forbidden fruit, seconded 
by a flaming sword ; as Belshazzar's dainties overlooked by a hand- 
writing against the wall ; such are all the delights of the world. 



" An Asiatic traveler tells us that one day he found the bodies of two 
men laid upon the desert sand beside the carcass of a camel. They 
had evidently died from thirst, and yet around their waist was a large 
store of jewels of different kinds which they had doubtless been crossing 
the desert to sell in the markets of Persia." — ffurlbufs Notes. 



The Living Water Jesus Gives. —Jesus Christ by the living waters 
He gives, satisfies every thirst of the soul. As many sided as man is, so 
many sided is the religion of Jesus. As He has made music for the ear, 
light and beauty for the eye, water for thirst, food for hunger, so I le has 
something to meet every want and satisfy every thirst of man. Even 
the wants of our physical nature are not perfectly satisfied except 
through Him. Our food is not perfect unless we eat and drink to the 
glory of God, and have with it not only " the feast of reason and (low 
of soul," hut the flow of gratitude and love. Our natural wants must 
be transfigured to be perfect. He transforms the whole life, and makes 
the desert to blossom like the rose. 



IV : 11-14 ST. JOHN 113 



Christ does not give us a cup of water which we can *%• 

drink up and the contents be exhausted, but a foun- a. ». 27. 



tain of water in our own souls, ever flowing, ever 
fresh, inexhaustible. This is what completes the gift 
and makes it perfect. It is not a cistern, but a foun- 
tain. It is not outside ; it is within us. 
Reference. —See on vii : 37. 



December. 

CLOSE OF THE 

i EAR. 
THE YK 
BEGINN1 

Discourse 
with the 

Woman of 

Samaria. 



Inexhaustible "Waters. — The living waters are * "^ 

inexhaustible because there is no limit to the sources of supply, just as 
the fountains and springs are filled from the limitless ocean, by means 
of God's " cloud chariot 



A Contrast. — " A parable tells us of a man shut up in a fortress and 
obliged to draw water from a reservoir which he may not 
see, but into which no fresh stream is ever poured. The A Parable 
diminution increases daily; how would he feel each time of of Life, 
drawing water? Life is a fortress, man is a prisoner. He 
draws his supplies from a fountain fed by invisible pipes, but the reser- 
voir is being exhausted. We had life yesterday ; we have it to-day : 
but we shall not have it on some day that is to come." — Foster's Essays. 



A Law of Hydrostatics. — " Water, by a well-known law of hydro- 

/ statics, never rises above its own level ; and so the best of earthly joys 

and rills r.f pleasure, can rise no higher than earth ; they begin and 

terminate here. But the living water with which Christ fills the soul, 

springing from heaven, conducts to heaven again. Flowing from the 

Infinite — flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, from the 

city of the cr ttes to the Infinite. It finds its level in 

the river of the water of life which flows in the midst of the celestial 

\s~ para lise. And just as on earth, so long as our mighty lake reservoirs 

are full of water and the channel unimpeded, the marble fountain in 

street or garden sends up, on the gravitation principle, its crystal jets 

in unfailing constancy ; so fwith reverence we say it) never shall these 

fountains of peace and joy and reconciliation and hope cease in the 

heart of the believer until the mighty reservoirs of Deity are exhausted; 

/in other words, until God himself ceases to be God. Everlasting life is 

•'their source, and everlasting life is their magnificent duration." — ,/. R. 

Macduff. 



The Well of Jacob and the Well of Nazareth. — ' ' The Saviour's 
illustration may appear more significant by reference to two sources of 



114 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV : I I-I4 

supply, open and plentiful in His day. That by which He sat — Jacob's 
well — must have collected chiefly surface water, and was therefore 
largely dependent on changing conditions. It is empty now ; the 
thirsty traveler may wait in vain for any one coming to draw. If he 
let down his pitcher into the dark depths, it will only be broken in 
pieces on the stones at the bottom. The other is the spring to which the 
youthful Jesus must often have gone with His mother, at the base of 
the northern slopes in Nazareth. From its cool, deep source in the 
heart of the hills, through all the intervening centuries, it has bubbled 
up ; and it is pouring forth its fresh sparkling stream to day, the life of 
the city, the fertility of the vale. Many are the cisterns and wells, 
broken and dry ; the living water alone remains when all other sources 
have failed." — Rev. William Ewing in S. S. Times. 



Library. — French's Poems, "Chidher's Well," " which bestows on 
whoever drinks it eternal beauty, youth and wisdom." 
Suggestive Illustrations on Matthew, v : 6. 



The Well is Deep, down into the very secret places of the earth. 
God's spiritual wells are deep. They reach down into the very depths 
of His nature and His providence. We must often go deep in order to 
obtain the best results of the living water. 

" There used to be a well near here with good water, but it was neg- 
lected. Some rubbish got in, then part of the surrounding 
soil, and as it was not cleared out at once it got worse, till Rubbish in 
it is as you see it, quite choked up. I wonder if there is the Well, 
any water at the bottom?" "How much this old well is 
like some Christians," thought I, "the divine life is ' a well of water,' 
but are there not many supposed to be Christians as to whom we wonder 
if there is any water at the bottom?" — Christian Age. 



Sir, Give Me This Water. — 

* ' Life is full of broken measures, 
Objects unattained ; 
Sorrows intertwined with pleasures, 
Losses of our costliest treasures, 
Ere the heights be gained. 

" Every soul has aspiration 
Still unsatisfied :. 



IV: 15 ST. JOHN 115 



15. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that 
I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. 

Memories that wake vibration 
Of the heart in quick pulsation, 
At the gifts denied. 

" We are better for the longing, 

Stronger for the pain : , 

Souls at ease are nature wronging ; — 
Through the harrowed soul come thronging 
Seeds, in sun and rain ! 

" Broken measures, fine completeness 

In the perfect whole : 
Life is but a day in fleetness ; 
Richer in all strength and sweetness, 

Grows the striving soul." 



A. D. 27. 

December. 

CLOSE OF THE 
FIRST YEAR. 

THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

Discourse 
with the 

Woman of 
Samaria. 



The Cistern and the Well represent two methods of giving, — by 
a definite quantity, as money can be given, or by a living fountain, as 
character, strength, health. These two different methods of giving can 
be seen in many things. It is one thing to impart to another the con- 
tents of a certain book, another to give him an education by which he 
can learn any book. It is one thing to teach a scholar a single tune, it 
is another to give him the musical culture and taste by which he can 
play any music. It is one thing to let another see by the light of your 
lamp, it is another to light his own lamp, in which case the supply is 
inexhaustible (apply Jer. 2 : 13). 



The Inexhaustible Supply. — In the Norse legends Thor (after whom 
our Thursday, Thor's day, was named) was tested as to his great powers 
in various ways. At one time a drinking-horn was given him to drain, 
but it continued always full. He learned afterwards that it was con- 
nected with the ocean, and he could not drink it dry till he had drained 
the whole ocean. So the living waters which Jesus Christ gives us can 
never be exhausted, for they have their supply in the limitless nature 
of God. 



Reference. — See xiv : 2. 



The Fountain of Eternal Youth. — (The story of Ponce de Leon 
and his search for the fountain of immortal youth has been beautifully 



Il6 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV : 1 5 

described by Hezekiah Butterworth, of the Youth's Companion, Boston, 
in a poem read at an authors' reading : 

" There came to old Ponce, the sailor, 
Some Indian sages who told 
Of a region so bright that the waters 

Were sprinkled with islands of gold. 
And they added, ' There Bimini rises, 
A fair land of grottoes and bowers, 
And a wonderful fountain of healing 

Upsprings from its gardens of flowers. 
That fountain gives life to the dying, 
And youth to the aged restores ; 
1 They flourish in beauty eternal 
\ Who sail from those life-giving shores.' 
Then answered old Ponce, the sailor : 

' I am withered and wrinkled and old, 
I would rather discover that fountain 
\ Than a country of diamonds and gold."' 

With a cheerful heart the old sailor started on his voyage, and came 
to Florida, which he so named from its verdure and flowers. But his 
search was vain, and he returned home. But — 

" Still he thirsted in dreams for the fountain — 
The beautiful fountain of youth." 

' ' One day the old sailor lay dying 
On the shores of a tropical isle, 
And his heart was rekindled with rapture, 

And his face lighted up with a smile. 
The Azores arose in his dreaming, 

Antilles with their sun- fruited trees, 
Fair Florida's calm Easter morning, 

In the light of the opaline seas, 
And as there in his dreaming uplifted 

The widening horizons of old, 
There broke on his wondering vision 

The city of jasper and gold. 
'Thank the Lord!' said old Ponce the, sailor, 
' Thank the Lord for the light of the truth, 
SI am now approaching the fountain, 
The beautiful Fountain of Youth, 
. Still, still the horizons are rising, 
The waves of a wider sea roll, 



IV: 15 ST. JOHN 117 



And all the bright hopes I have cherished 
Await the far voyage of my soul.' 

The cabin was silent ; at twilight 



A. D. 27. 

December. 

CLOSE OF THE 
FIRST YEAR. 

THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

Discourse 
with the 

Woman of 
Samaria. 



His soul had gone forth to discover 
The beautiful Fountain of Youth. 

And so methinks it is ever, 

As the wide waves of destiny roll, 
There are fountains of life for all visions 

In the infinite voyage of the soul. 
And though our fair Floridas vanish, 

And the forms of bright visions depart, 
Yet, some day, each soul will discover 

All fountains that spring from the heart. 
No noble dreams ever will perish. 

No high aim shall miss its reward, 
For every true hope that we cherish 

Is an iris of promise from God! " 

— Hezekiah Butterworth. 

Library. — Whittier : Poems, " The Well of Loch Maree," referring 
to the description in Pennant's Voyage to the Hebrides. 

My Cup Runneth Over. — (1) Men are cups, capable of holding 
great and blessed things. Each desire, each possibility is like a cup. 
(2) God is the cup filler. (3) There are empty cups, so full of the world, 
as the bottom of Jacob's well with stones and rubbish, that there is no 
room for the living water. (4) Full cups, overflowing with the water of 
life. — From Sermon by Rev. G. G. Phipps. 



The Bells of Is. — One of the most popular legends of Brittany is 
that relating to an imaginary town called Is (pronounced Iss), which 
is supposed to have been swallowed up by the sea at some unknown 
time. There are several places along the coast which are pointed out 
as the site of this imaginary city, and the fishermen have many 
strange tales to tell of it. 

According to them the tips of the spires of the churches may be seen 
in the hollow of the waves when the sea is rough, while during a calm 
the music of their bells ringing out the hymn appropriate to the day 
rises above the waters. 

Similarly, as it has always seemed to me, amid the submerged 
masses, deep down at the bottom of the ocean of human life, there are 



Il8 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV:l6-2I 



16. Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. 

17. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, 
Thou hast well said, I have no husband: 

18. For thou hast had five husbands ; and he whom thou now hast is not thy 
husband : in that saidst thou truly. 

19. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. 

20. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain ; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is 
the place where men ought to worship. 

21. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall 
neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 

yearnings and desires for a better life, that ring sadly and perpetually. 
It has been the aim of my life to listen for these, and where I have 
detected them, to present the only answer — the love of God in Jesus 
Christ our Lord. — F. B. Meyer. Preface to his book The Bells of Is. 

Library. — Compare De Quincy's description of the sunken island of 
Savannah la Mar, in his Opium Eater. 



, XTwo Philosophies of Life. — There are two worldly philosophies of 
life, (1) that of Solomon in Ecclesiastes, of the Persian poet Omar 
Khayyam in the Rubdiydt, the Epicurean, "Let us eat and drink, for 
to-morrow we die;" and (2) that of the Buddhist Nirvana, interpreted 
in Arnold's Light of Asia, which kills the "soul-thirst," the "mother 
of desire," by ''constraining passions till they die famished, in a 
blessed, sinless, stirless rest." " Over against these two philosophies, 
the one of which seeks to satisfy desire, the other of which seeks to kill 
it, Christ puts the mystic teaching of His parable to the woman of 
Samariai^Phe secret of happiness is, and always must be, not some- 
thing apart from the soul, but something within it — a true spontaneous 
life springing up within. Happiness is not to be found by getting what 
we want; happiness is not to be found by tearing from the soul the 
mother of desire, and ceasing to have wants. Character is happiness. 
We are happy when we have resource within ourselves; when in us 
there is a fountain of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, faith, 
meekness, self-control, springing up spontaneously into eternal life." — 
Lyman Abbott. 

16-18. Awakening Thirst. — " In prompt response to her faith, Jesus 
says, ' Go, call thy husband, and come hither.' The water which He 
means to give cannot be given before thirst for it is awakened. And 
in order to awaken her thirst He turns her back upon the shameful 
wretchedness of her life, that she may forget the water of Jacob's well 
in thirst for relief from shame and misery. In requiring her thus to 
face the facts of her guilty life, in encouraging her to bring clear before 



IV: 22-26 ST. JOHN 119 



A.D. 27. 

December. 

CLOSE OF THE 
FIRST YEAR. 

THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

Discourse 
willi the 

Woman of 
Samaria. 



22. Ye worship ve know not what : we know what we wor- 
ship, for salvation is of the Jews. 

23. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true wor- 
shippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for 
the Father seeketh such to worship him. 

24. God is a spirit : and they that worship him must worship 
him in spirit and in truth. 

25. The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, 
which is called Christ : when he is come, he will tell us all 
things. **" **" 

26. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. 

Him all her sinful entanglements, He responds to her request, and 
gives her the first draught of living water." — Dods. 

Jesus kindly shows the woman her sinful character, convinces her of 
sin, in order that she may feel her need, and then seek for the waters 
of eternal life. This convincing of sin and need as a preparation for 
further light and life is illustrated everywhere. No one will seek a 
physician unless he feels sick, or take food unless hungry, or read good 
books without a thirst for knowledge. 



21. Neither in this Mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem.— 

" Jesus, where'er Thy people meet, 
There they behold Thy mercy-seat; 
Where'er they seek Thee thou art found, 
And every spot is hallowed ground ! " 

Sir Matthew Hale found that prayer gave a " tincture of devotion " 
to all secular employments; that " it was a Christian chemistry, con- 
verting those acts which are materially natural and civil into acts truly 
and formally religious." He discovered in habitual devotion what 
Herbert calls " the elixir " of life. 

" This is the famous stone 
That turneth all to gold; 
For that which God doth touch and own 
Cannot for less be told." — Dr. Stoughton. 



Library. — Whittier's Poems, " The Chapel of the Hermits." — 
Henceforth my heart shall sigh no more 
For olden time and holier shore; 
God's love and blessing, then and there, 
Are now and here and everywhere. 



120 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV : 22-26 

22. Ye Worship Ye Know Not What. — " We have read of a lady 
missionary in India who on visiting a certain town found the place 
smitten with cholera. She gave to some of the patients a specific for 
cholera, and ordered further supplies of the medicine for other sufferers. 
On her return she was delighted, on meeting the chief man of the place, 
to hear him say, ' We have been so much benefited by your medicine 
that we have decided to accept also your God.' To prove the reality of 
what he said, he led her into their temple, where she saw the empty 
bottles arranged in order on a shelf; and immediately the whole com- 
pany of natives prostrated themselves upon the floor in worship to the 
bottles as a god. It is quite possible that very Christian people may 
sometimes fall into an analogous idolatry. An excessive reverence or 
admiration for certain formulas of worship, capable of conveying a true 
blessing when the worship is really in the Spirit, but useless as empty 
medicine bottles when the Spirit is lacking, may not be so remote in 
character from the worship of empty bottles." — Rev. D. Berger, D.D. 



24. In Spirit and in Truth (Iv irv€v|iaTi kcU dX^Geia). — " Spirit (irvevixa) 
is the highest, deepest, noblest part of our humanity, the point of con- 
tact between God and man (Rom. i. 9) ; while soul (xj/vx'q) is the principle 
of individuality, the seat of personal impressions, having a side in con- 
tact with the material element of humanity as well as with the spiritual 
element, and being thus the mediating element between the spirit and 
the body. The phrase in spirit and in truth describes the two essential 
characteristics of true worship : inspirit, as distinguished from place or 
form or other sensual imitations (ver. 21); in truth, as distinguished 
from the false conceptions resulting from imperfect knowledge (ver 22)." 
— M. R. Vincent. 



27. His Disciples Marveled that he Talked with the Woman.— 
" Let us not fall into the mistake of the disciples, and judge men good 
enough to buy and sell with, but quite alien to the matters of the 
kingdom." 

" There is a day in spring 
When under all the earth the secret germs 
Begin to stir and glow before they bud, 
The wealth and festal pomps of midsummer 
Lie in the heart of that inglorious hour 
Which no man names with blessing, tho' its work 
Is bless'd by all the world. Such days there are 
In the slow story of the growth of souls." 



IV: 27-34 ST - J 0HN I21 

* 



A. ». 27. 

December. 

CLOSE OF THE 
FIRST YEAR. 

THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

Discourse 

with the 

Woman of 

Samaria. 



27 1[ And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that 
he talked with the woman : yet no man said, What seekest 
thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? 

28. The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way 
into the city, and saith to the men, 

29. Come, see a man, which told me all things that eyer I 
did: is not this the Christ? 

30. Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. 

31 . IT In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, 
Master, eat. 

32. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. 

33. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him aught 
to eat ? 

34. Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to 
finish his work. 



Discovery of the African Diamond Mines. — "I have heard that 
one of the diamond fields of South Africa was discovered in this wise. 
A traveler, one day, entered the valley and drew near to a settler's 
door, at which a boy was amusing himself by throwing stones. One 
of these stones fell at the stranger's feet, who picked it up, and was in the 
act of laughingly returning it, when something flashed from it which 
stopped his hand and made his heart beat fast. It was a diamond. The 
child was playing with it as a common stone; the peasant's foot had 
spurned it; the cart wheel had crushed it, till the man who knew saw 
it and recognized its value. 

" The story often comes to my mind when I am thinking of the soul. 
Was it not the same careless treatment the soul was receiving when 
Jesus arrived in the world and discovered it. . . . In every child of 
Adam He perceived the diamond. The rags of the beggar could not hide 
it from His eyes nor the black skin of the savage, nor even the crimes of 
the evil doer." — James Stalker in Imago Christi. 



29. Come, See. — Christians desire others to be Christians, only better 
and happier Christians than themselves, — like them "except these 
bonds "of remaining sins and imperfections. 



The Ship of Humanity. — Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes once compared 
the world to a ship loaded with humanity, and sinking in the waves; while 
the evangelical church people had got out of it into their little boats, 
and were singing with all their might " We are safe," as they rowed 
lustily to the shore. But that is no true picture of the true church, 



122 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV : 35-38 

35. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest ? behold, i 
say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already 
to harvest. 

36. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: 
that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. 

37. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. 

38. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor: other men labored, 
and ye are entered into their labors. 

whose shout is not only " We are safe," but " Here is the way of safety 
for all ; come and let us row you to the shore." 

Reference. — See on Chapter 1 : 35. 

Library. — E. E. Hale's Ten Times One is Ten. 



The Expansive Power of Christianity. — " The work of the Spirit 
of God in the heart is not a fiction, not a form, but a life. To use the 
simile of this narrative, it is a fountain not only ' springing up ' (bub- 
bling up), but overflowing its cistern, and the superfluous supply going 
forth to gladden other waste places. Not the mass of stagnant water 
without outlet, but the clear, sparkling lake, discharging its rush of 
living streams which sing their joyous way along the contiguous valleys, 
and make their course known by the thread of green, beautifying and 
fertilizing as they flow. Or, if we may employ another figure, let it be 
the stone thrown into the same still lake. The ripples formed are deep- 
est in the centre. Christianity is deepest in the heart in which its 
truths have sunk ; but its influence expands in ever- widening concentric 
circles, till the wavelets touch the shore. Religion, intensest in a man's 
own soul and life, should embrace family, household, kindred, neigh- 
borhood, country, until it knows no circumference but the world ! 
Christianity breaks down all walls of narrow isolation, and proclaims 
the true brotherhood of the race. Selfishness closes the heart, shuts 
out from it the rains and dews and summer sunshine ; but Christianity, 
or rather the great Sun of light, shines ; the closed petals gradually 
unfold in the genial beams ; and they keep not their fragrance to them- 
selves, but waft it all around. Every such flower — the smallest that 
blushes unseen to the world — becomes a little censer swinging its 
incense-perfume in the silent air, or sending it far and wide by the 
passing breeze." — J. R. Macduff, D. D. 



34. My Meat is to Do the Will.— 

' This world is no blot for us nor blank, 
It means intensely and means good — 
To find its meaning is my meat and drink. "— Browning. 



IV : 35~3 8 ST - JOHN 123 

The Power of the Mind Over the Body has con- + *£• 

tinual illustration both in experience and in the obser- 
vation of medical men. A new interest will often 
entirely remove weariness. Dr. Forbes Winslow says, 
" The physician is daily called upon in the exercise of 
his profession to witness the powerful effects of mental 
emotion upon the material fabric. He perceives that 
moral causes induce disease, destroy life, retard 
recovery. ... Such influences are admitted to 
play an important part either for good or evil." — Ob- 
scure Diseases of the Brain. There is not a natural action in the body, 
whether voluntary or involuntary, that may not be influenced by the 
peculiar state of the mind at the time. — Dr. John Hunter. So spiritual 
work, Christian conversation, prayer meetings, may refresh and renew 
body as well as spirit. 



A. D. 27. 

December. 

CLOSE OF THE 
FIRST YEAR. 

THE YEAR OF 
BEGINNINGS. 

Discourse 

with the 

Woman of 

Samaria. 



This Meat was the indwelling Spirit of God, sustaining grace. A 
faint type of it is afforded in earthly experiences by the strength which 
seems often to be imparted to even a feeble mother in the hour of her 
child's sickness, and which carries her through vigils which, but for her 
love, it would be impossible for her to sustain. Her work is not 
her food : her love and faith are her food, and sustain her for her work. 
No Christian can live by or on his work ; nor did Christ. — Abbott. 



35. White Already to Harvest. — "In Palestine neither all the sow- 
ing nor all the reaping of the fields is done at one and the same season. 
As soon as one crop is out of the ground another is prepared for. 
Ploughing and sowing follow close upon reaping and gleaning. Differ- 
ent crops require different lengths of time for their maturing ; and, as 
a consequence, the planting for one crop will sometimes be going on 
while another crop near it is almost ready for the harvest. As soon as 
the fields are cleared, in the midsummer or in the early autumn, the 
ground is ploughed, and the winter wheat or some other grain is sowed, 
in advance of the rainy season. Again, between the early and the 
latter rains of the springtime, there will be ploughing, and the sowing 
of barley or oats or lentils for a later crop. In the second week in 
April I saw on the Plain of the Cornfields, not far from Jacob's well, 
the grain already well ripened toward the harvest, while just south- 
ward of that region, and again, two days later, just northward of it, I 
saw ploughing and planting going on ; so that I might have been in 



124 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV ; 39-42 



39. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of 
the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. 

40. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he 
would tarry with them : and he abode there two days. 

41. And many more believed because of his own word ; 

42. And said unto tbe woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for 
we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour 
of the world. 



doubt, from my own observations, whether that were the time of seed- 
sowing or of harvest ; and so it is likely to have been in the days of 
Jesus. It is obvious that there were within the eye sweep of Jesus and 
His disciples the signs of seed-sowing on the one hand and of ripening 
harvest on the other ; and that it was by calling attention to these two 
processes of nature in so close proximity of time and space that Jesus 
taught the lesson He would have his disciples there receive. His dis- 
ciples were shown that even while seed-sowing for one crop was going 
on in the natural world there might be also a making ready for an 
ingathering of former crops ; so that sowing and reaping should go on 
together." — H. C. Trumbull, LL. D. 



36. Both Rejoice Together.— The foundations of the lighthouse 
deep down in the sea, and forever hidden from view, are as essential to 
the safety of the passing vessels, as is the lamp upon its top radiating 
light far over the waters. The early inventors of the rude machines 
which have been perfected by later men of genius were as essential to 
final success as those who perfected the inventions. 



42. Now We Believe, Etc. — " I have read that Benjamin Franklin 
tried to convince the farmers of his day that plaster enriched the soil. 
All his philosophical arguments failed to convince them ; so he took 
plaster, and formed it into a sentence by the roadside. The wheat com- 
ing up through those letters was about twice as rank and green as the 
other wheat, and the farmers could read for months, in letters of living 
green, the sentence : This has been plastered" — Advocate of Holiness. 



The Better Foundation op Faith. — The same house is worth vastly 
more when on good foundations than when on poor foundations. Some 



I V : 43-46 



ST. JOHN 



125 



43. If Now after two days he departed thence, and went into 
Galilee. 

44. For Jesus himself testified, that a prophet hath no honor 
in his own country. 

45. Then when he was come into Galilee, the Galileans 
received him, having seen all the things that he did at Jeru- 
salem at the feast: for they also went unto the feast. 

46. So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made 
the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son 
was sick at Capernaum. 

houses in the Back Bay of Boston were found falling 
because they were built on poor foundations. They 
were almost unsalable. Put granite foundations 
under, and the houses are useful and valuable. 



Dec. A. ». 

Or Early in 
Jan. A. I>. 

28. 

CLOSE OF THE 

FIRST YEAR. 

BEGINNING OF 

THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

CANA 
OR CAPER- 
NAUM. 
Healing of 
the Noble- 
man's Son. 



"Near the place where Christ talked with the Samaritan woman 
now stands a Baptist church, with a regular congregation of a hundred 
persons." — Jewish Messenger. 



44. No Honor in His Own Country. — " They had not discovered 
the greatness of this Galilean, although He had lived among them for 
thirty years ; but no sooner do they hear that He has created a sensation 
in Jerusalem than they begin to be proud of Him. Every one has seen 
the same thing a hundred times. A lad who has been despised as almost 
half-witted in his native place goes up to London and makes a name for 
himself as poet, artist, or inventor, and when he returns to his village 
everybody claims him as cousin. Montaigne complained that in his 
own country he had to purchase publishers, whereas elsewhere pub- 
lishers were anxious to purchase him. ' The farther off I am read from 
my own home,' he says, ' The better I am esteemed.' " — Marcus Dods. 



No Man a Hero to His Valet. — The great Julius Caesar, who 
"bestrode the narrow world like a Colossus," "notwithstanding his 
fiery energy and lightning-like swiftness of thought and act, was of a 
rather fragile make, and an almost feminine delicacy of texture." His 
friend Cassius had once saved him from drowning in the Tiber, and bore 
him on his shoulders, 



' ' As Eneas did from the flames of Troy, upon his shoulder 
The old Anchises bear : " 



and had seen him in a fever, and heard him groan and cry, 
some drink, Titinius, like a sick girl." 



Give me 



126 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV : 43-46 

" And that same eye whose bend doth awe the world 
Did lose his lustre." 

Even Cassius could not see the greatness which all the world has since 
seen, nor understand how Caesar was so much greater than he ; but 
exclaimed : 

" It doth amaze me, How Csesar 

A man of such a feeble temper should Seemed to 

So get the start of the majestic world, His 

And bear the palm alone." Companions. 

See the whole passage in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Act I., Scene 2. 



The proverb says truly that no man is a hero to his own servant. Not 
because he is not really a hero, but because heroism is an invisible 
spirit, and, when its symbols and pageantries are laid aside, it seems as 
if heroism were laid aside with them. When a hero or a saint is seen 
to eat and drink, live and dress, like an ordinary man, weak where 
some are strong, ignorant of some things that others know, it is almost 
impossible to look through these things and recognize the hero or saint. 



Were Socrates to walk our streets as he walked those of Athens, with 
" his thick lips, snub nose, corpulent body, and personal ugliness," 
scolded by his wife at home, and walking in mean dress and bare feet in 
the public streets and workshops, " careless where or when or with 
whom he talked," how many of us would have recognized 
under this Thersites mask the features of a god, or have Socrates, 
imagined that this man among the millions of his age would 
march down the centuries the foremost of them all ? No man in a cloud 
ever comprehended the cloud. Put it far away in the sunset sky, then 
you can see the cloud. Stand close against a mountain : you see stones 
and bushes and trees and soil and rocks, but you cannot see the 
mountain. Stand off, off in the distance ; there alone can you see the 
mountain. 



46. The Miracle on Behalf of the Nobleman's Son has been 
regarded by some semi-skeptical writers as another version of the miracle 
in behalf of The Centurion's Servant, Mat. 8 : 5-13, both belonging to 
Capernaum, and having some slight points of resemblance. How easily 
two different events that have many points of similarity might be con- 
fused by critics centuries after the events, may be illustrated by facts 
in a neighboring town. A number of years ago a maiden lady named 



IV : 43-46 



ST, JOHN 



27 



Mary Ann Morse left to the town of Natick, Mass., 
for a public library, a sum of money amounting in the 
end to over $60,000. A third of a century 
later another Mrs. Mary Ann Morse left 
$150,000 to the same town for a hospital. 
One was a Morse by birth, the other by 
marriage. The Morses were not even re- 
lated. And yet a critic a thousand years hence would 
be almost sure that these two events were but mis- 
taken variations of the same event, so unlikely is the 
truth of the true account given above. 



Mary Ann 

Morse 
Legacies. 



Deo. A. 


B>. 


27, 




Or Early 


171 


Jan. A. 


1>. 


28. 





CLOSE OF THE 

FIRST YEAR. 

BEGINNING OF 

THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

CANA 
OR CAPER- 
NAUM. 
Healing of 
the Noble- 
man's Son. 



Library. — "In Scott's Old Mortality, Lord Evan- 
dale discerns at once Ifche extraordinary qualities of 
Henry Morton, which had escaped the notice of his kinsfolk and 
friends." 

Consuelo, " advising Anzoleto to quit Venice, reminds him that no per- 
son is a prophet in his own country. This is a bad place for one who 
has been seen running about in rags, and where any one may come to 
you and say, 'I was his protector, I saw his hidden talent. It was I 
who recommended him and procured his advance.' " 

Dr. O. W. Holmes declares that the opinion of relatives as to a man's 
power "are commonly of little value, not so much because they over- 
rate their own flesh and blood, as some may suppose ; as because, on 
the contrary, they are quite as likely to under-rate those whom they 
have have grown into the habit of considering like themselves." — Jacox. 

Jacobs Secular Annotations, Series I, pp. 143-147, contains a number of 
other instances. 



One of the old sophists tried to prove that it was impossible to walk. 
The philosopher with whom he was arguing did not attempt any refu- 
tation, but simply walked. So the best assurance of what Christ can 
and will do for us is what He has done. He has written all over the 
history of Christianity in letters of living light : Jesus can help us in 
our every need. 



Having Seen i^.LL The things He Did at Jerusalem. — " When the 
elevated railroad was first started in New York the people were a little 
timid about riding on it ; so the proprietors of the road took great 
pleasure in apprising the public of the fact that this road had been sub- 
jected to a most abnormal and enormous tonnage, and that consequently 
people of ordinary weight might deem themselves quite safe in traveling 
over that rjoad. I feel the same way about the four gospels — that I. 



128 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV : 43-46 

can take my way to heaven above the din and dust of daily life because 
this elevated road has had all Germany upon it, and that as yet it has 
given no sign of instability. " — Francis L. Pattern, LL. D., President of 
Princeton University. 

Moral Miracles. — "When a man declares to me, ' I cannot believe 
in miracles,' I reply, 'I can, because I have witnessed them.' ' When 
and where ? ' ' On a certain street in this city is a man who was a week 
ago given over to every form of vice and brutality, and who is now a 
good citizen; an honest workman, a kind husband, a loving father, a 
pure, upright man. Surely, that is such a miracle as makes me forever 
believe in the possibility of miracles."' — Prof. Drummond. In the 
Grecian story the giant Antaeus, in wrestling with Hercules, doubled 
his strength when he touched the earth. And our faith renews its 
strength when it touches the ground of fact. 



46. A Certain Nobleman Whose Son was Sick. — " The site of 
Capernaum is famous to this day for the number and the malignancy 
of its fevers. The country lies low, and the land round about is marshy; 
so that during the hot season the conditions are favorable for producing 
fevers of the worst sort." — S. S. Times. 

" The simplest and obvious use of sorrow is to remind of God. Jairus 
and the woman, like many others (as this nobleman), came to Christ 
from a sense of want. It would seem that a certain shock is needed to 
bring us in contact with reality. We are not conscious of our breathing 
till obstruction makes it felt. We are not aware of the possession of a 
heart till some disease, some sudden joy or sorrow, rouses it into extra- 
ordinary action. And we are not conscious of the mighty cravings of 
our half-divine humanity ; we are not aware of the God within us, till 
some chasm yawns which must be filled, or till the rending asunder of 
our affections forces us to become fearfully conscious of a need." — 
F. W. Robertson. 



Painter Saved by Destroying His Picture. — " Sir Thomas Thorn- 
hill was the person who painted the inside of the cupola of St. Paul's 
Church, London. — After having finished one of the compartments, he 
stepped back gradually to see how it would look at a distance. Beneath 
the scaffolding, and at a depth which caused dizziness, even to contem- 
plate, was the hard stone floor of the building. Gradually receding, 
with his eye intently fixed on the painting, he had reached the very 
edge of the scaffolding without being aware of his danger. Another 
step, and he would have been dashed to pieces on the pavement below 1 
At this instant a spectator perceiving the imminent danger of the artist, 



IV: 47-54 



ST. JOHN 



I29 



47. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judea into 
Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would 
come down, and heal his son : for he was at the point of death. 

48. Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and 
wonders, ye will not believe. 

49. The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my 
child die. 

50. Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And 
the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, 
and he went his way. 

51. And as he was now going down, his servants met him, 
and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. 

52. Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to 
amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh 
hour the fever left him. 

53. So the father knew that it ivas at the same hour, in the which 
him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house. 

54. This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he 
Judea into Galilee. 



Dec. A. D. 

Or Early in 
Jan. A. ». 

. 28. 

CLOSE OF THE 

FIRST YEAR. 

BEGINNING OF 

THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

CANA 
AND CAPER- 
NAUM. 
Healing of 
the Noble- 
man's Son. 



Jesus said unto 



was come out. of 



and fearing if he called to him he would look behind him, and fall 
from mere dizziness, suddenly snatched up one of the brushes and 
dashed it against the picture. Sir James, transported with indignation, 
sprang forward to save the remainder of his work from ruin. His rage, 
however, was soon changed into gratitude, when his deliverer explained 
the reason of his conduct, and showed him that by marring the painting 
he had saved the life of the painter." — John Dowling, D. D. So God 
sometimes mars the beautiful pictures of peace and health and 
pleasure we are cherishing too intently in our lives and hopes, in order 
that he may save our souls from destruction. 



47. When He Heard ... He Went Unto Him. — " Imagine, if you 
can, the condition of a country in which there are no doctors, where the 
healing art is only practiced by a few quacks, who rely more on charms 
than on physic for their cures. Such is now, and such was Palestine in 
our Lord's day. There, until the medical missionaries were sent by 
several English societies, there w^as not a physician in the land, and even 
now there are very few. In such a country as this, with sick and 
crippled in every village, picture the eager excitement when the news 
spreads that there is a good physician arrived in town : that he has 

healed a fierce demoniac by a word, and a great fever by a touch." H. 

D. Tristram, D. D., LL. D., in Sunday-School Times, 
9 



130 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV : 47-54 

Physicians in the East. — ' « No one is more sought after in the East 
than the hakeem or physician. Let it be known that one of a traveling 
party of Europeans is a doctor, and all the sick persons in the neighbor- 
hood make their way to his tent for free treatment. The lack of ade- 
quate medical facilities in the East is noted by every traveler ; and it 
would hardly be possible to overestimate the amount of suffering caused 
by this lack. That is the reason why the Frankish hakeem can go safely 
where no other Frank dare go ; and it may be said reverently that it is 
also one of the reasons why our Lord took upon Himself the character 
of a hakeem or healer. Those whom no other appeal would bring flocked 
to Him because they believed Him to be a powerful hakeem. It is also 
one of the reasons for the success of medical missions. " — H. C. Trum- 
bull 

Library. — R. F. Horton's " Cartoons of St. Mark," " The Cartoon of 
Healing;' 1 Trumbull's "Studies in Oriental Social Life," "Calls for 
Healing in the East." 



Whittier's Poems, " Our Master." — 

" The healing of the seamless dress 
Is by our beds of pain — 
We touch Him in life's throng and press, 
And we are whole again." 



The love and devotion of the family center in that one who is sick, 
or feeble, or in trouble. So we know that God loves and cares for us in 
our weakness and lost condition ; and our very needs, instead of dis- 
couraging us from going to God, should be an argument for believing 
He will help us. Our very interest and care for the sick is the assur- 
ance that much more will our Heavenly Father care for us. 



Faith and Foot-Power. — In a little book, Saint Indefatigable, is 
related the following incident: "When we had diphtheria here (the 
Shelter for Destitute Children), there were twenty cases among the 
children, and no one would watch. Our president, Miss Jackson, and 
Mrs. Searle, both knew our need, and both believed we would get 
assistance. Miss Jackson went home to pray over it. Mrs. Searle 
commended the praying, and added, ' A little foot-power leill be needed 
to (jo with it ; so while Miss Jackson prays, I will furnish the foot- 
power.' Thus through the prayer of faith and the feet of faith, the 
necessary nurses were secured," — H, L. Hastings in Tlie Christian. 



IV: 47-54 



ST. JOHN 



13 



Faith and Means. — The nobleman had not much 
faith, but it was real faith, and he made use of what 
he had. He could not cure his boy, but he could 
apply to One who could. We cannot swim across the 
ocean, try we never so hard, but we can go to the 
steamer. To sit still, and not use the means God has 
made is not a mark of faith, but of folly or super- 
stition. 

Not long ago two little girls on their way to rchool 
were in danger of being late. One of them proposed 
to kneel down by the roadside and pray that they get 
there in season. The other replied, " No, let us skim 
it along as fast as we can, and pray as we go." 



D. 



Dec. A, 
27. 
Or Ea rly in 
Jan. A. I>. 

28. 

CLOSE OF THE 

FIRST YEAR. 

BEGINNING OF 

THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

CAN A 
AND CAPER- 
NAUM. 
Healing of 
the \obie- 
maii" - Son. 



48. Except Ye See Signs and Wonders. — " These two words mark 
the two chief aspects of miracles; signs, the spiritual aspect, whereby 
they suggest some deeper truth than meets the eye, of which they are 
in some sense symbols and pledges ; and wonders, the external aspect, 
whereby their strangeness arrests attention." — Westcott. 



Evidence of Miracles. — Xote that he does not throw any slight 
upon miracles as evidences of His divine mission, for He is continually 
doing them, and referring to them as evidences (John 14: 11). 

What he taught was that the faith, having its origin and strength 
in these external signs, was an inferior kind of faith, having less inilLi- 
ence on the life and character : while that faith which grew out of a 
receptive nature, which hungered and thirsted after righteousness, which' 
felt that the teachings of Jesus were divine because they fed the soul 
and met its spiritual needs, was a higher and better faith. He there- 
fore wishel that the Jews had a deeper spiritual nature, a stronger 
desire to know and obey the truth. Before them was a golden stair- 
way to the highest character, and to the knowledge of God and of Jesus 
as their friend and Saviour. They were sitting on the first step and 
resting there. Jesus said to them, climb up higher, do not rest here. 
By these things become acquainted with God, learn His goodness and 
power, and then come to Him moved by these higher and nobler 
motives ; just as a great Atlantic liner starts out of its dock by the aid of 
tugs, but when fairly on her way. leaves them behind, and steams 
across the ocean by means of a stronger power within her. 



132 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV : 47-54 

Jesus thus was leading the nobleman to a higher faith. Spurgeon in 
his sermon on this miracle names the Leadings, (1) TJie spark of faith, 
faith seen in the spark ; (2) The fire of faith, struggling to maintain 
itself, increasing, proving by the smoke that the fire is burning within ; 
(3) The conflagration of faith, " The little spark of faith in the breast 
of the nobleman is lit by Jesus into a clear and enduring flame for the 
light and comfort of himself and his house." 



Compare Dante's three immoral works, " Hell," " Purgatory," " Para- 
dise." 



Miracles as Object Lessons. — Miracles were object lessons, express- 
ing the love and forgiveness and comfort from God. Every one was a 
parable and a sermon. Every one made it easier to trust in God and 
love him. They called the attention of the people to the gospel. They 
rang the bell that summoned them to spiritual blessings. And when- 
ever in answer to prayer he guides to the right physicians and the right 
means of cure, he as really heals men as if he worked a miracle of 
healing. The tree that grows from the seed is as truly a work of God 
as if created at once by a word. 



" He was not a bad genealogist who said that Iris (The Rainbow) the 
messenger of heaven, is the child of Wonder." — Thecetetus (Jewetfs 
Plato, iv. p. 302). 



49. Sir, Come Down Ere My Child Die. — "Poole compares the 
nobleman to Naaman, who had faith enough to come to Elisha's door 
to be healed of his leprosy, but was stumbled because Elisha did not 
put his hand on the diseased place, but only sent him a message. (2 
Kings v. 11)." 



True Prayer. — " Most of us can recall the story told by Dr. James 
Hamilton : It appears that a Scotchman of his acquaintance was in 
very much the same trouble as this nobleman. His wife besought him 
to pray that the life of their dying baby might be spared. True to his 
old instincts, the good man kneeled down devoutly, and went out on 
the well-worn track, as he was wont to do in the prayer-meetings at 
the kirk. Through and through the routine petitions he wandered 
along helplessly, until he reached, at last, the honored quotation : ' Lord, 
remember thine ancient people, and turn again the captivity of Zion ! ' 
A mother's heart could hold its patience no longer: 'Eh, man!' the 



IV: 47-54 ST. JOHN 133 

woman broke forth impetuously ; ' you are aye drawn v — 4* 

out for the Jews, but it's our bairn that's a-cleein'.' Dec. A. D 



Then, clasping her hands, she cried : ' Oh ! help us, 
Lord, and give our darling back to us if it be thy holy 
will ; but if he is to be taken away from us, make us 
know thou wilt have him to thyself ! ' That wife 
knew what it was to pray a real prayer ; and to the 
throne of grace she went, asking directly what she 
wanted most." — C. S. Robinson, LL. D. c\NA 

AND CAPER 



27. 

Or Early in 
Jan. A. I>. 

28. 



CLOSE OF THI 

FIRST YEAK. 

BEGINNING O 

THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 



NAUM. 
Healing: of 
the Noble- 
man's Son. 



50. And the Man Believed the Word. — ' ' One 
day, when Napoleon I. was reviewing his troops in 

Paris, he let fall the reins of his horse from his hands J%. »j 

upon the animal's neck, when the proud charger gal- 
loped away. Before the rider could recover the bridle, a common 
soldier ran out from the ranks, caught the reins, stopped the horse, and 
placed the bridle again in the hands of the Emperor. • Much obliged to 
you, captain,' said Napoleon. The man immediately believed the chief , 
a id said, ' Of what regiment, sire ? ' Napoleon, delighted with his quick 
perception, and ready trust in his word, replied, ■ Of my guards !' and 
rode away. As soon as the Emperor left, he laid down his gun saying, 
' He may take it who will ; ' and instead of returning to the ranks 
whence he so suddenly issued, he started for the company of staff offi- 
cers. They were amazed at his apparent rudeness, and disobedience of 
orders ; and one of the generals contemptuously said, ' What does this 
fellow want here?' 'This fellow,' replied the soldier proudly, ' is a 
captain of the guards.' ' You ! my poor friend: you are mad to say so,' 
was the answer of the superior officer. ' He said it,' replied the soldier, 
pointing to the Emperor, still in sight. ' I ask your pardon, sir,' said 
the general respectfully ; ' I was not aware of it.' And so the soldier 
came duly to his post as a captain of Napoleon's Guards. " 



53. At the Same Hour. — The telegraph and telephone give us some 
faint idea of omnipresent power. A man can send you his wprd of 
help when thousands of miles away from you. The machinery in the 
world's Exposition at New Orleans in 1884-5 was set in motion from 
Washington by the President of the United States touching a knob. 
Jesus Christ in heaven is just as near us as if he stood by our side. All 
natural and all spiritual powers are under His control and can be used 
for our help. 



Binghamton Water- works. — " The building we entered (at Bing- 
hamton, N. Y.) was furnished with a Holley engine. As we stood by 



134 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV : 47-54 

the steam-gauge, we observed constant and considerable changes in the 
amount of steam produced. As there was no cause apparent in or 
about the engine itself, we asked for an explanation. ' That,' said the 
engineer, ' is done by the people in the city. As they open their 
faucets to draw the water, the draft upon our fires is increased. As 
they close them, it is diminished. The smallest child can change the 
movements of our engine according to his will. It was the design of 
the maker to adjust his engine so that it should respond perfectly to the 
needs of the people, be they great or small.' Just then the bell rang, 
the furnace-drafts flew open, the steam rose rapidly in the gauge, the 
engineer flew to his post, the ponderous machinery accelerated its 
movement. We heard a general alarm of fire. 'How is that?' we 
asked. t 'That,' he said, 'was the opening of some great fire-plug.' 
'And how about the bell? What did that ring for?' 'That,' he 
said, ' was to put us on the alert. You saw that the firemen began to 
throw on coal at once.' How much more will God's heart respond 
to every prayer of his creatures. That engine was one of the grandest 
triumphs of science; the power of the prayer of faith is one of the 
greatest triumphs of divine wisdom and love." — Prof. J. P. Gulliver. 



53. Thy Son Liveth. — Jesus Christ is living now and is working 
through His people in the same directions as when visible on earth. 
As He promised His disciples (John xiv. 12), he is healing 
more sick, opening more blind eyes, binding up more Christianity 
broken hearted than he did in Palestine, 1,800 years ago. and Healing. 

Wherever the gospel prevails, life is prolonged, many 
lives are saved, hospitals spring up, the sick are cared for, the means 
of healing are increased. So in all things the gospel blesses our lives in 
this world, multiplies comforts and enjoyments, ministers to prosperity, 
to beauty, to education, to helpful arts. To see this, compare the 
Christian with the heathen world. 



Medical Missions. — " The medical mission is the outcome of the 
living teachings of our faith. I have now visited such mis- 
sions in many parts of the world, and never saw one which Testimony 
was not healing, helping, blessing, softening prejudice, of Isabella 
diminishing suffering . . . telling in every work of Bird Bishop, 
love and of consecrated skill of the infinite compassion 
of Him who ' came, not to destroy men's lives, but to save them."' — 
Isabella Bird Bishop. 



Library. — " The Philanthropies.'''' — A Colony of Mercy describes 
what Christianity is doing for all forms of disease in a town in Ger- 



IV : 4 7-54 



ST. JOHN 



135 



many. A saint of olden time was taunted with the 
poverty of his community. In reply he pointed to the 
sick and the suffering, and said, "These are nry 
treasures." 

R. S. Storrs' The Divine Origin of Christianity 
Indicated by Its Historical Effects. 

Dr. Dennis' Christian Missions and Social Progress 
is not only intensely interesting in itself, as easily the 
first on this subject, but gives a long list of books for 
further research. 



" The new r age stands as yet 
Half built against the sky, 
Open to every threat 

Of storms that clamor by; 
Scaffolding veils the walls 
And dim dust floats and falls, 
As, moving to and fro, their tasks the masons ply 



Dec. A. D. 

27, 

Or Early in 
Jan. A. i>. 

28. 

CLOSE OF THE 

FIRST YEAR. 

BEGINNING OF 

THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

CANA 
AND CAPER- 
NAUM. 
Healing of 
the Noble- 
man's Son. 



William Watson. 



136 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 



V:I-3 



CHAPTER V. 

THE HEALING AT BETHESDA. 



1. After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went 
up to Jerusalem. 

2. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, 
which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five 
porches. 

3. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, 
halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. 

2. Sheep Market, — Rather Sheep Gate, on the east 
of the city, south of the Temple. Probably used for 
the sheep to be offered in sacrifice, especially at the 
Passover feast. The sheep market was usually just 
outside of the gate. 



A. D. 28. 

Early in April. 

The Passover 

that year was 

March 29 to 

April 5. 

second year of 

Christ's public 

ministry. 

the year of 

development. 

early in the 

GREAT 
GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 

Tlie Pool 

of 
Bethesda. 



Bethesda. — Commonly interpreted The House of Mercy. Though 
other interpretations are given. 



Library. — Compare " The Colony of Mercy" in the Teutoburger 
Forest, where the " Silly Valley" was changed to the "Happy Valley." 



Library. — As to its site, see Thomson's Land and Book, Vol. I. 
Southern Palestine and Jerusalem," p. 458-461. 



The Pool of Bethesda. — (1) The " Palestine Exploration Fund " 
locates this pool " in the N. E. angle of Jerusalem, just inside the east 
wall, about 150 feet north of the Via Dolorosa." The chief evidence is 
the discovery here (during the restoration of the Church of St. Anne 
given to Napoleon III. by the Sultan) of remains of an ancient bathing 
pool with inscriptions and fragments of statues testifying to its curative 
effects. Among them was ' a white marble foot, bearing a dedication 
in Greek characters, showing it to be the offering of a thankful Roman 
woman named Pompeia, healed at the pool of Bethesda ; " just as we 
see in some Catholic churches in Europe the images of the Virgin hung 
with votive offerings. I saw many such in the Cathedral at Bordeaux, 
around the image of the Virgin of the Bon Nouvelles. 



V:l-3 



ST. JOHN 



137 



"A site more probable from the nature of the pool 
itself is the Fountain of the Virgin, on the west side 
of the Kedron, under the Jerusalem eastern wall, 
south of the Temple Area, near to what is probably 
the Sheep Gate. It is about 1,200 feet N. E. of the 
Pool of Siloam, and connected with it by subterranean 
passage. This is an intermittent fountain or pool. 
' Dr. Robinson found that the water in this fountain 
rose and fell at intervals, giving it an intermittent 
character corresponding somewhat to the irregular 
troubling of the waters spoken of by the impotent 
man.' " — Wm. M. Taylor. 



A. ». 28. 

Early in April. 

The Passover 

that year was 

March 29 to 

April 5. 

second year of 

Christ's public 

ministry. 

the year of 

development. 

early in the 

GREAT 

GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 

The Pool 

of 
Bethesda. 



"It is very intermittent. The basin is quite dry; ^ — 

then the water is seen springing up among the stones. 
On one occasion To bier saw it rise four and a half inches with a gentle 
undulation on another it rose for more than twenty-two minutes to 
a height of six or seven inches, and came down again in two minutes 
to its previous level. Robinson saw it rise a foot in five minutes. He 
was assured that this movement is repeated at certain times twice or 
thrice a day, but that in summer it is seldom observed more than once 
in two or three days. These phenomena present a certain analogy to 
what is related of the Bethesda spring. Eusebius speaks also of springs 
in this locality, the water of which was reddish, evidently due to 
mineral elements, but, according to him, to the filtering of the blood of 
victims into it." 



"There is a spring of this kind at Kissengen, which, after a rushing 
sound about the same time every day, commences to bubble, and is 
most efficacious at the very time the gas is making its escape. This 
spring is especially used in diseases of the eye." — Tholuck. 



The Cause of the Intermittent Flow. — " Undoubtedly the physical 
explanation of the irregular flow peculiar to the underground water- 
course traceable from the Pool of Siloam up to a fountain-head on the 
north of Jerusalem, is a siphon-outlet by which the contents of its 
uppermost receptacle or reservoir is discharged. An outlet closed to the 
air, issuing from the lower level of a receiver of drainage, and as it 
departs rising to the upper level, but as it continues to depart falling 
(still air-tight) below the lower level again, would empty all at once the 
receiver of its slowly collected water, and then its stream would cease 
until the chamber had once more filled to the top by infiltration. While 



I38 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V : 1-3 

it continued to run, this stream would flush all the pools along its 
course from that of the Serpents on the north, to that of Siloam on the 
south : at Bethesda it would occasion what in the time of our Lord was 
called * the troubling of the water.' Each descending flood was accom- 
panied with so much rush, bubbling, gurgling and other noise of 
activity, as to advise the patients waiting in the porches when to bathe." 
— Prof. J. A. Paine, Ph. D. 



Mineral Springs impregnated with minerals to such a degree as to 
possess medicinal properties are found in many parts of the world. The 
ancients ascribed supernatural properties to mineral springs, and their 
priests, especially those of ^Esculapius, placed their sanctuaries near 
them, as at the Alkaline Springs of Naupha, and the Gas Springs of 
Dodona. Such places were provided not merely with baths, hospitals 
and medical schools, but also with theatres and other resorts for amuse- 
ment. Philostratus says that the Greek soldiers wounded in the battle 
on the Caicus were healed by the waters of Agamemnon's spring, near 
Smyrna. Josephus says that Herod sought relief from his terrible dis- 
ease in the Thermal Springs of Callirrhoe. The most celebrated bathing 
place of the Roman Empire was the Hot Sulphur Springs of Baiae, on 
the Gulf of Naples. — American Cyclopedia. 



Library. — On the many intermittent springs in Iceland and in 
Wyoming on the Fire-Hole river, see * ' Geysers " in the Encyclopedias. 



3. Great Multitude of Impotent Folk. — Compare Zola's description 
of the Grotto of Lourdes. " A perfect Court 'des Miracles' of human 
woe rolled along the sloping pavement. No order was observed, ail- 
ments of all kinds were jumbled together ; it seemed like the clearing 
of some inferno, where the most monstrous maladies, the rare and awful 
cases which provoke a shudder, had been gathered together. . . . 
Every deformity of the contractions followed in succession, twisted 
trunks, twisted arms, necks askew, all the distortions of poor creatures 
whom nature had warped and broken. 

" Through fear lest the output of the source should not suffice, the 
Fathers of the Grotto only allowed the water of the baths to be changed 
twice a day. And nearly a hundred patients being dipped in the same 
water, it can be imagined what a terrible soup the latter at last became. 
It was like a frightful consomme of all ailments, a field of cultivation 
for every kind of poisonous germ, a quintessence of the most dreaded 
contagious diseases." — Lourdes, pp. 130,151. 



V:i- 3 



ST. JOHN 



139 



How Helpless man is to save himself from the 
disease of sin may be illustrated by ^Eschylus' "Pro- 
metheus Bound ; " by Virgil's Laocoon, with his sons 
in the coils of the great serpent (Book II.), of which 
statues may be seen in most art galleries ; by the 
young man in Paris, who was examining a guillotine, 
and, from curiosity, lay down on the plank under the 
knife, and found himself fastened there, unable to 
escape without aid from others. 



•'The Ghauts of the Hindoos at the present day 
are structures of a very similar character to these 
Bethesda porches." "Any English or German Spa 
presents substantially the same scene." — J. Hutchi- 
son, D. D. 



A. D. 28. 

Early in April. 

The Passover 

that year was 

March 29 to 

April 5. 

second year of 

Christ's public 

ministry. 

the year of 

development. 

early in the 

GREAT 
GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 

The Pool 

of 
Bethesda. 



Waiting for the Moving of the Water. — ' ' Many are waiting for 
some singular emotion, remarkable impression, or celestial vision. Tens 
of thousands are waiting in the use of means and ordinances and vows 
and resolutions, and have so waited time out of mind, and waited in 
vain." — Spurgeon. 

The Troubling of the Pool. — * 

" Not when Bethesda's pool a tranquil mirror lay, 
Kissed into radiance by an Orient sun, 
But when the angel stirred its crystal depths, 
The wondrous power of healing was begun. 
Calm and unruffled by a troublesome thought 
Like fair Bethesda's pool a soul may lie 
Bathed in the placid sunlight of content, 
While seasons of rich grace are passing by ; 
But when the Spirit stirs the sluggish depths 
Until its calm gives way to wild unrest, 
Then comes sweet healing, and the sin-sick heart, 
Dropping its burden there, finds peace and rest." 

— Minnie E. Kenney. 



The Still Pool and the Flowing Pool. — ' ' There are hundreds of 
churches in our land that are suffering weakness because they have not 
drunk at the fountain of perpetual youth. The meaning we may illus- 

* Note. — This expression and the whole of verse 4 are wanting in the best manu- 
scripts, and were probably a marginal reading that some one copied into the text. 
But that the waters were troubled is told us in verse 7. 



140 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V: I~3 

trate. There is in your vicinity a pool of water, and you are thirsty. 
You come to it, and look, and find it foul, with a green scum on its 
surface. You do not drink. Another pool is near. You come to it, 
and look, and find it as clear as crystal. Many slake their thirst there, 
and find in it health. Both pools have one thing alike. They both 
receive water, but the character of the fountain is that it gives. ' In a 
still pool devils swarm,' is a Russian proverb." — C. H. Daniels, D. D. 



Life and Healing in the Troubled Waters. — There never was a 
time when many things were more unsettled, in a more continuous and 
ruffled flow than to-day. I hear much criticism of the Sunday schools, 
many experiments, many suggested ideas, rainbows on the mist that 
rises from these moral Niagara Falls. I listen to secular educational 
experts, and there is the same restless movement, conflict of opinions, 
melting of the old metal fixtures into a freely moving flux. There is a 
like awakening confusion in Bible study, and the forms of theology. 
At first it seemed as if everything were being unsettled, and that soon 
we would all be like Noah's dove, with no place on which to rest. But 
these movements mean life, they mean better things. They are the 
striving after solid foundations. All growth means movement. All 
life means change, not sudden, like an earthquake or revolution, but 
the change as of spring from winter, of houses from forest trees, of cities 
from green fields. 



" Republics exist only on the tenure of being constantly agitated." 
" Agitation is not a disease nor a medicine ; it is tho normal state of the 
nation. Never, to our latest posterity, can we afford to do without 
prophets to stir up the monotony of wealth, and re-awake the people to 
the great ideas that are constantly fading out of their minds — to trouble 
the waters that there may be health in their flow." "A republic is 
nothing but a constant overflow of lava." Agitation " is not the cure 
but the diet of a free people — not the homeopathic or allopathic dose to 
which a sick land has recourse, but the daily cold water and the simple 
bread, the daily diet and absolute necessity, the manna of a people 
wandering in the wilderness." "If the Alps, piled in cold and still 
sublimity, be the emblem of despotism, the ever-restless ocean is ours, 
which, girt within the eternal laws of gravitation, is pure only because 
never still." — Wendell Phillips, Speeches and Lectures, "Public 
Opinion." 

Library. — See Suggestive Illustrations on Matthew, p. 30. The quo- 
tation from Prof. Scripture's Thinking, Feeling and Doing, concerning 
the frog which was boiled to death because there was no agitation. 



V:i- 3 



ST. JOHN 



I 4 I 



A. I>. 28. 

Early in April, 

The Passover 

that year ivas 

March 29 to 

April 5. 

second year of 

Christ's public 

ministry. 

the year of 
development 

earls" in the 

GREAT 
GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

The Pool 

of 
Bethesda. 



The Bethesda Pool a Type. —(1) " Behold here all *— 
sickness cured by one hand and one water. O all ye 
that are spiritually sick and diseased, come to the pool 
of Bethesda, the blood of Christ : do ye complain of 
the blindness of your ignorance ? Here ye shall re- 
ceive clearness of sight : of the distemper of passions? 
here ease ; of the superfluity of your sinful humors? 
here evacuation ; of the impotency of your obedience ? 
here integrity ; of the dead witheredness of good affec- 
tions? here life and vigor. Whatsoever your infirmity 
be, come to the pool of Bethesda and be healed. " — 
Bishop Hatt. 

(2) " Men build the porches, but the healing is God's 
work. We can build a shelter for the sick who come 
to be cured, but God cures them. The pool can do 
without the porches, but not the porches without the pool. Therefore 
God does not build any chapels by miracles. If men want to have 
houses to worship in, God says, ' that is your work : you must toil, and 
you must collect, and you must give, and you must pay for it. You can 
build the brick porch, but it is for Me to make it a Bethesda, a house of 
mercy unto thousands.'" 

(8) " The porches were only of value as they led to the pool. In other 
words, the porch was of no good to any man except he went beyond it. 
Do you observe, too, that those who filled the porches were just the 
very ones we want to see filling our sanctuaries ? They were not only 
sick ones in those porches. They were something better. They were 
those who knew themselves to be sick. They came there with a special 
purpose, and that purpose was to be healed." 

(4) " The water was nothing until the angel touched it. The medicine 
is nothing until God blesses it. The physician of himself is powerless, 
let him be never so clever in his profession. What is it then that is 
needed ? It is the blessing of the angel of the covenant resting on the 
means that are used — it is God commanding health through their 
instrumentality. But you and I may say, ' Brother, we cannot make 
you whole, we wish we could, but there is a Bethesda which, by the 
Lord's blessing, may, and we can build a porch to help you get there and 
stay there."' — A. G. Brown, D. D. 

(5) The crowding of the pool of Bethesda, — the House of Mercy or 
Grace, - strongly resembles our frequenting of ordinances, a practice 
which many continue in very much the state of mind of this paralytic. 
They are still as infirm as when they first began to look for cure; it seems 
as if their turn would never come, though they have seen many remark- 
able cures. Press them with the Lord's question, " Are you expecting 
to be made whole. Is that your purpose in coming?" — Marcus Bods, 



142 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V : 4-9 



4. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the 
water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made 
whole of whatsoever disease he had. 

5. And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. 

6. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that 
case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? 

7. The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is 
troubled, to put me into the pool : but while I am coming another steppeth down 
before me. 

8. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. 

9. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: 
and on the same day was the sabbath. 

(There is a shorter way to health, as we see in the following verses) : 
(6). A Contrast — At Bethesda only the first comers had seeming 
opportunity for healing. The Gospel is abundant and free to all. The 
healing of one does not hinder, but helps, the healing of others. 



(7). The waters of Bethesda might become impure from the diseases 
cleansed, but the fountain of the Gospel is forever pure, with infinite 
power of healing. 



6. Wilt Thou Be Made Whole? — There are some invalids who are 
not cured, because they will not be healed ; they will not rise ; they will 
not walk ; they will not work. Yet it may be that for their illness the 
work so detested is the only cure or alleviation. — MacDonald. 

Many are not saved from their sins because they do not wish to be 
healed. They are not willing to forsake their sins ; they are not willing 
to take up the work for Jesus that lies close at hand. 

Illustrations of this are seen every day. What use in offering work 
to a man that does not want to work, or a book to one who does not 
wish to read? There are often those whom we could help to an educa- 
tion if thej T hungered for it, or to business if they would leave off their 
bad habits and be willing to work on business principles. 

As some beggars would consider it a calamity to get rid of their rags 
or infirmities, because they get their living by them. 



8. Rise, Take Up Thy Bed and Walk. — Here were the trio of man's 
part in salvation —faith, work, obedience. 

Jesus' command to do something was the most natural and proper 
thing for the salvation of the man. 



V: 4 -9 



ST. JOHN 



43 



To do it required faith. In the doing of it faith 
came, and power to do. Faith that obeys is the faith 
that saves. Usually the question of faith conies to us 
in some concrete act, and life or death turns upon that 
act, not because it is so powerful in itself, but it is a 
test and occasion of faith. 

" Christ cures the sick, not by what He does to them, 
but by what He does in them, and by what He thus 
arouses them to do in and for themselves. God delivers 
us from our appetite, our pride, our vanity, our 
covetousness, not by taking from us our sinful ap- 
petites and passions, not by plunging us impotent into 
an angel- troubled bath and bringing us out potent, 
we passive all the time, but by stirring up within us a 
resolute will and purpose to vanquish every sin and 
unworthiness, and by giving us the power in the effort to exercise it. 
For every St. George the dragon is vanquished only by the heroism 
wrought in St. George's heart. The Apollyon is not taken out of the 
path of Pilgrim ; God conquers Apollyon for him, because God puts 
courage and resolution in Pilgrim's heart. Let no man pray for victory 
unless he is willing God should answer by giving him a battle to fight." 
— Lyman Abbott, D. D. 



A. D. 28. 

Early in April. 

The Passover 

that year was 

March 29 to 

April 5. 

second year of 

Christ's public 

ministry. 

the year of 

development. 

early in the 

GREAT 
GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 

The Pool 

of 
Bethesda. 



Salvation by Arousing the Will Power. — " In all that 
redemption of nations and races which Christ is working out 
through the centuries, His method is the same. God saves the 
nation, as the individual, by appealing to its manhood, arousing its will 
power, and in a true sense setting it to save itself. The boon of free- 
dom, of national life, is not given to the passive recipient gently kneel- 
ing ; it is encircled with fire, and only the people with a heart and a 
tempered sword can win it. To all the prayers of Protestants in the 
dawning of the Reformation in England the answer is the reign of 
Bloody Mary. If you are worthy of religious liberty, you can have it. To 
all the prayers of Puritans in the time of the Stuarts the answer is the 
Civil War. If you are worthy of freedom, you can have it. To all 
the prayers of the American colonists the answer is the American Revo- 
lution. If you can endure Lexington and Bunker Hill and Valley 
Forge, then you may have Yorktown. To all the prayers of anti- 
slavery Christians, seeking the emancipation of the Nation and the 
Negro, the answer is Vicksburg, Antietam and Gettysburg. To all the 
prayers of God's people to-day, seeking any hope for the Christian con- 
version and sancti ft cation of paganized wealth and paganized poverty, 
paganized culture and paganized ignorance, the answer is — we know 
not what ; only we know that whenever we come to Christ asking for 



144 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V:IO-I$ 

10. If The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the Sabbath day: 
it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. 

11. He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up 
thy bed, and walk. 

12. Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy 
bed, and walk? 

13. And he that was healed wist not who it was; for Je3us had conveyed himself 
away, a multitude being in that place. 

14. Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou 
ait made whole : sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. 

15. The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him 
whole. 

high places in His kingdom, His answer is always the same : Are ye 
able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and to be baptized with 
the baptism that I am about to be baptized with ? In short, what is all 
history but a repetition of the incident of the impotent man at the pool 
of Bethesda? — a nation hoping for some miraculous troubling of the 
water that will bring it mystic healing, and a voice saying to it, ' Rise, 
take up thy bed thyself, and walk.' What is it but a Moses saying to 
his people, ' Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord,' and the Lord 
answering, * Wherefore criest thou unto me ? speak unto the children 
of Israel, that they go forward.' " — Lyman Abbott, D. D. 



10. The Sabbath Day — Not Lawful for Thee to Carry Thy 
Bed. — "There are two ways of destroying the Sabbath; one by dis- 
regarding its principles ; the other, quite as effectual, by smothering 
them under an immense number of artificial interpretations and pro- 
hibitions, which keep the letter of the law, but utterly destroy its spirit. 
The Pharisees took this latter course with the utmost ingenuity, almost 
satanic shrewdness of folly. It was impossible to keep the Sabbath on 
their plan. The conscience was continually bound with fetters. There 
could be no true, loving Sabbath spirit. 

" The law commanded them to do no work on the Sabbath day. The 
Pharisees based on this 39 principal prohibitions. Then they made a 
multitude of decisions as to the definite things these 39 permitted or 
forbade. For instance, reaping and threshing were forbidden, hence it 
was asserted that plucking grain was wrong because it was a kind of 
reaping, and rubbing off the husks was a sin because it was a kind of 
lh rcshing. 

" Grass was not to be trodden, as being akin to harvest work. Shoes 
with nails were not to be worn, as the nails would be a 'burden,' and a 
' burden ' must not be carried. A tailor must not have his needle about 



V:i6 



ST. JOHN 



145 



16. And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought 
to slay him, because he had doue these things on the Sabbath 
day. 



A. D. 28. 

Early in April. 

The Passover 

that year was 

March 29 to 

April 5. 



hirn towards sunset on the Friday, for fear the Sab- 
bath should begin while he was yet carrying it." — 
Eugene Stock. 

"To break the Sabbath rather than suffer hunger 
for a few hours, was guilt worthy of stoning. Was it 
not their boast that Jews were known 
The Phari- over the world by their readiness to die 
sees' Inter- rather than break the holy day ? Every 
pretation of one had stories of grand fidelity to it. 
the Sabbath The Jewish sailor had refused, even 

Law. when threatened with death, to touch the helm a moment 
after the sun had set on Friday,' though a storm was raging, 
and had not thousands let themselves be butchered rather than touch a 
weapon in self-defense on the Sabbath?" — Geikie. 



second year of 

Christ's public 

ministry. 

the year of 

DEVELOPMENT. 

EARLY IN THE 

GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

The Pool 

of 
Betliesda. 



"The vitality of these artificial notions among the Jews is extraordi- 
nary. Abarbanel relates that when, in 1492, the Jews were expelled from 
Spain, and were forbidden to enter the city of Fez, lest they should 
cause a famine, they lived on grass ; yet, even in this state, 'religiously 
avoided the violation of their Sabbath by plucking the grass with their 
hands.* To avoid this they took the much more laborious method of 
groveling on their knees and cropping it with their teeth." — Cam- 
bridge Bible for Schools. 

Their devotion to the Sabbath was right, but their method of apply- 
ing it was false in the extreme. A set of hard, definite rules binding 
the conduct, instead of great principles planted in the heart, always 
leads to evil, to inconsistency and hypocrisy, and smothers the true life 
under a load of mere outward forms, as King Henry, angry with his 
courtiers, locked them into the dining room and smothered them with 
roses and flowers. Or as a man might seek to preserve his house by 
refusing to sweep down the cobwebs or clean away the mildew or 
drive away the moths or pull down the scaffolding, lest he injure the 
house. 



14. Sin No More, Lest a Worse Thing Come. — " What the past sin 
was to which the Lord alludes, we know not, but the man himself knew 
well. This much is, however, plain to us, that Christ did connect the 
10 



I46 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V : 16 

man's suffering with his individual sin. However unwilling men may 
be to receive this, bringing as it does God so near, and making retribu- 
tion so real and so prompt a thing, yet it is true not the less. As some 
eagle pierced with a shaft feathered from its own wing, so many a suf- 
ferer, even in this present time, sees and cannot deny that it was his 
own sin that fledged the arrow of God's judgment, which has pierced 
him and brought him down. And lest he should miss the connection 
oftentimes he is punished, in the very kind wherein he has sinned 
against others (Judg. i. 6, 7; Gen. xlii. 21; Exod. xxxv. 6, 15; Jer. li. 
49; Hab. ii. 8; Rev. xvi. 6). The deceiver is deceived as was Jacob (Gen. 
xxvii, 19, 24; xxix. 23; xxxi. 7; xxxvii. 32): the violator of the sancti- 
ties of family life is himself wounded and outraged in his nearest and 
tenderest relations as was David (2 Sam. xi. 4; xiii. 14; xvi. 22); the 
troubler is troubled (Josh. vii. 25). He has no choice but to say like 
Edmund in ' King Lear,' ' The wheel has come full circle, I am here.' 
And many a sinner who cannot thus read his own doom, for it is a final 
and fatal one, yet declares in that doom to others that there is indeed a 
coming back upon men of their sins. The grandson of Ahab is himself 
treacherously slain in the portion of Naboth (2 Kings ix. 23) ; "William 
Rufus perishes, himself the third of his family who does so, in the New 
Forest, a chief scene of the sacrilege and the crimes of his race." — 
Abp. Trench. 

16. Therefore did the Jews Persecute Jesus. —The position Jesus 
took as to the Sabbath was like a red flag to a wild bull. It was like a 
spark to the powder magazine of their hate and opposition. They 
feared that the sky was falling, when Jesus brushed away the clouds 
that hid the stars. They thought the ceiling would fall when he brushed 
away the cobwebs. They had built their hopes like insects' nests on the 
scaffolding of the temple, and when Jesus tore down this scaffolding of 
tradition, their pride, their positions of honor and power were certain to 
go with it, and therefore they opposed his efforts at reform. 



Bas-relief in Verona. — In the great old church of Verona was a 
bas-relief, a beautiful work of the fifteenth century. For some reason 
it was covered with mastic and hidden for more than one 
hundred years, and entirely forgotten. In 1630 an earth- Traditions 
quake shook off the mastic, and revealed the life of Christ Hiding the 
in its ancient beauty. A similar experience occurred in the Truth, 
church of Santa Croce in Florence, where Giotto's pictures 
were covered up by the Medici, but rediscovered in 1863. So when 
Jesus thrust aside the traditions with which the Pharisees had covered 



V:i 7 



ST. TOHN 



H7 



17. T But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, 
and I work. 

up the beautiful Sabbath rest, they thought that the 
shrine itself was being destroyed, instead of being 
restored. 



Sidney Smith in one of his speeches relates the story 
of a neighbor of his, who had grown rich and pros- 
perous, while all the time he had a painful form of 
dyspepsia. A doctor comes to him and offers to cure 
him. The man refuses. "Take it away! Why, I 
have grown rich and prosperous with that dyspepsia ! " 
imagining that the very thing which hindered him 
was essential to his success. 



A. D. 28. 

Early in Apr 7. 

The Passover 

that year was 

March 29 to 

April 5. 

second year of 

Christ's public 

ministry. 

the year of 
development. 

early in the 

GREAT 
GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 

The Pool 

of 
Betliesda. 



Worshiping the Cross Instead of Bearing It. — In that beauti- 
ful book, The Gross Bearer, one of the pictures represents a person 
who, instead of bearing his cross, had set it up in the ground, and 
crowned it with flowers, and was worshiping it. The Lord stands by, 
and says, "I commanded you to bear your cross, not to worship it." 
The Pharisees worshiped the Sabbath, but did not use it forits spiritual 
life and blessing. 



Fault-finding Obscuring Virtues. — The Pharisees saw what they 
regarded as a fault, but were blind to the great good deed Jesus had 
done ; like the man who saw a fly on a church steeple, but did not see 
the church; or the other who saw a toad in Paradise, but not the 
fruits and flowers. 



I once read a fable of a man who, desiring to go to sleep, set his tame 
bear to watch and drive away the flies. When a fly lit upon his face, 
the bear raised a great stone and crushed the fly, but killed the man 
also with the blow. 

Compare Hawthorne's weird story of "The Birth-mark," in his 
Mosses from an Old Manse, where a man killed his almost perfectly 
beautiful wife in his efforts to take from her face one small birth-mark. 



17. Iy Father Worketh Hitherto. — The Father's working is a pat- 
tern for our working. For six days the Lord was making heaven and 
earth, these days being divine days of long duration, and ending 
with the creation of man. Since then has been his seventh day, 



I48 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V : I? 

wherein he has rested from the work of creation. No new species of 
plant or animal is known to have been created since man. Nothing 
since has required the exercise of creative power. Yet God has not 
been inactive, but has continued the necessary operations of nature, 
and has been working for the redemption of man, both of which are 
Sabbath labors. He works thus until now. 



And I work, in just the same way, on the Divine plan, with equality 
of will. There is no record of Jesus doing a single secular work on the 
Sabbath. The eating and drinking necessary for existence, of course, 
were performed by him. But his works on the Sabbath were works of 
mercy, of religion, of teaching, of helping men. And these are our 
Sabbath works. There is no shadow of excuse in Christ's conduct or 
teaching for a Sabbath spent in worldly pleasures and recreations. Of the 
36 miracles recorded as performed by Jesus, seven were miracles of 
mercy on the Sabbath. Jesus removed the rubbish with which Pharisaic 
rules had encumbered the Sabbath, and made it a day of freedom, of 
worship, of joy, of mercy. But Jesus did not abrogate the Sabbath nor 
the fourth commandment. It is absurd to suppose that he took from 
his written Word a law which remains written on our natures, and 
which he wishes us to keep. 

The Sabbath is earthly rest to give opportunity for heavenly activities, 
as worship, fellowship with God, study of His will, feeding on 
heavenly food, works of mercy and kindness. The '.' thou shall not " s of 
the fourth commandment are a fence around the Sabbath garden, to 
keep out worldly cares and labors, and the crowd of pressing daily 
duties, as a fence keeps out of the garden the cattle and beasts that 
would destroy its fruits and flowers. The fence is for the sake of the 
garden. It produces no fruits, it makes no flowers grow. And it is 
folly to spend all our time ornamenting the fence while we neglect the 
fruits and flowers for which the garden exists. The fence leaves a free 
field for the cultivation of all the fruits of the spirit, and the graces of 
heaven. 

" Why does not God keep the Sabbath?" asked a caviller of a Jew- 
els it not lawful," was the answer, "for a man to move about in his 
own house on the Sabbath ? " 



Library. — Tlie Rambler, No. 30, vol. 1., has an allegory on Sunday 
observance. 



18. Sought the More to Kill Him. — But their efforts served only to 
bring out more clearly the claims and power of Jesus ; as the cannon 



V: 18-20 



ST. JOHN 



149 



18. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because 
he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God 
was his Father, making himself equal with God. 

10. Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, I say 
unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he 
seeth the Father do : for what things soever he doeth, these 
also doeth the Sou likewise. 

20. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all 
things that himself doeth : and he will shew him greater works 
than these, that ye may marvel. 

ball shot to the enemy into the fortress of Sevastopol 
opened within it a spring of water. 



A. D. 28. 

Early in April. 

The Passover 

that year was 

March 29 to 

April 5. 

second year of 

Christ's public 

ministry. 

the year of 

development. 

early in the 

GREAT 
GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 

Tlie Pool 

of 
Bethesda. 



Og, king of Bashan, lifted a huge stone to throw at 
the armies of Judea, but God made a hole in it, and it slipped over his 
head, and made him fast forever. — Wendell Phillips. 



The Father Loveth (fyikd) the Son.—" To love is expressed by two 
words in the New Testament, <JhX.€w and dYairdw. 'Aya-iraM indicates a 
reasoning, discriminating attachment, founded in the conviction that 
its object is worthy of esteem, or entitled to it on account of benefits 
bestowed. $i\iui represents a warmer, more instinctive sentiment, more 
closely allied to feeling, and implying more passion. Hence <ryairda> is 
represented by the Latin diligo, the fundamental idea of which is 
selection, the deliberate choice of one out of a number, on sufficient 
grounds, as an object of regard. Thus $\.\i<o emphasizes the affeciional 
element of love, an 1 dYcnrdw the intelligent element. Socrates, in Xeno- 
phons " Memorabilia/' advises his friend Aristarchus to alleviate the 
necessities of his dependents by furnishing means to set them at work. 
Aristarchus having acted upon his advice, Xenophon says that the 
women in his employ loved (i$l\ow) him as their protector, while he 
in turn loved (TjYdira) them because they were of use to him (" Memora- 
bilia," ii., 7, § V2) Jesus' sentiment toward Martha and Marv is 
described by d-yd-mi, John xi. 5. ) Men are bidden to love (dYairdv) God ( Matt, 
xxii. 37; 1 Cor. viii. 3); never (jnXclv, since love to God implies an intel- 
ligent discernment of His attributes and not merely an affectionate 
sentiment. Both elements are combined in the Father's love for the Son 
(Matt. iii. 17; John iii. 35; v. 20). 'A^aini is used throughout the panegyric 
of love in 1 Cor. xiii., and an examination of that chapter will show how 
large a part the discriminating element plays in the apostle's concep- 
tion of love. The noun ayairr\ nowhere appears in classical writings. 



150 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V: 21-24 



21. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them ; even so the Son 
quickeneth whom he will. 

22. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the 
Son: 

23. That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that 
honoretb. not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. 

2-i. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on 
him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation ; but 
is passed from death unto life. 



As Trench remarks, it " is a word born within the bosom of revealed 
religion." 'Epdw, in which the idea of sensual passion predominates, is. 
nowhere used in the New Testament. Trench has some interesting 
remarks on its tendency toward a higher set of associations in the Pla- 
tonic writings (Synonyms, p. 42). — Prof. M. R. Vincent, Word 
Studies. 



Showeth Him All Things That Himself Doeth. —We can know 
but little of God's infinite plans, and many things would seem plain and 
beautiful if we saw the whole, which are inscrutable and mysterious to 
us now. We gain visions of God's plans through His 
prophets, as windows with an outlook into infinity, but we Savage 
can no more understand them all than a man born blind and Lit- 
can comprehend all that the eye can see : or than a savage erature. 
in his native wilds can be made to understand the wonders 
of civilization, literature and science. 

But Jesus saw God's plans as a whole, and could do His work gladly 
and hopefully in view of the final results, and the completed scheme. 



Reference. — See xi. 6, " The fly on a cathedral pillar. 



Godet illustrates this active revelation on the Father's part by the 
simile of the father in the carpenter's shop at Nazareth, showing the 
Son the things He made and the method of making them. This simile, 
however, being external, is apt to misdirect the mind. 



21. Quickeneth Whom He Will. —Makes them alive, gives life to. 
Life is the greatest gift that can be conferred on any one ; and next 
to this is more life. 

Think what the life of Pentecost, the life of heaven, has done for man. 



V: 21-24 



ST. JOHN 



151 



Whatever crazy sorrow saith, 

No life that breathes with human breath 

Has ever truly longed for death. 

Tis life whereof our nerves are scant, 

Oh, life, not death, for which we pant, 

More life and fuller that we want. — Tennyson. 



A. D. 28. 

Early in April. 

The Passover 

that year -was 

March 29 to 

April 5. 

second year of 

Christ's public 

ministry. 

the year of 

development. 

early in the 

GREAT 
GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 

The Pool 
of 

The Mysterious Flre. — ' ' The pilgrims of Bunyan's Bethesda 

allegory gazed with puzzled astonishment on the fire 

which blazed brightly while water was being poured 

on it. The mystery was solved, however, when they were conducted 

outside the building and saw a man sending in large supplies of oil to 

the fire-place through a secret channel. So with all who have spiritual 

life ; it is given and sustained by One who feeds the strength of all His 

saints." — J. L. Hurlbut, D. D. 



Library. — TJie Tattler, No. 96, vol. 2, contains an 
essay by Addison, on " Every worthless man a dead 
man." 



22. Hath Committed All Judgment Unto the Son. — See ver. 27. 
" Because He is the Son of Man" He belongs to the race, has the feeling 
and experience of our natural infirmities, being tempted in all points 
like as we are, yet without sin. 



Retzsch's Game of Chess. — " Suppose it were perfectly certain that 
the life and fortune of every one of us would one day or other depend 
upon his winning or losing a game at chess. Don't you think we would 
all consider it a primary duty at least to learn the names and moves of 
the pieces? Yet it is plain that the life, fortune, and happiness of every 
one of us depend upon our knowing something of the rules of a game 
infinitely more difficult and complicated than chess. The chess-board 
is the world ; the pieces are the phenomena of the universe ; the rules 
are what we call the laws of nature. The player on the other side is 
hidden from us. We know that this play is always fair, just, and 
patient ; but also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mis- 
take, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. To the man who 
plays well, the highest stakes are paid ; and one who plays ill is check- 
mated, without haste, but without remorse. My metaphor will remind 
some of you of the famous picture in which Retzsch has depicted Satan 
playing at chess with man for his soul. Substitute for the mocking 



152 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V:2I-24 

fiend in that picture a calm, strong angel, who is playing for love, as 
we say, and would rather lose than win, and I would accept it as an 
image of human life." — Prof. Huxley in Lay Sermons, p. 31. 



23. Honor the Son. — Library. — Carlyle's Heroes and Hero Wor- 
ship. " No nobler feeling than this of admiration for one higher than 
himself dwells in the breast of man. It is to this hour, and in all hours, 
the vivifying influence in man's life." 



24. He That Heareth and Believeth is Passed from (Out of) 
Death Unto (Into) Life, as one passes out of one kingdom into another ; 
or out of darkness into the daylight. 



How blessed it is to have a Saviour who is more than willing to bestow 
the greatest of blessings on everyone who is willing to receive it. "It 
is said that once Mendelssohn came to see the great Friburg organ. The 
old custodian refused him permission to play upon the instrument, not 
knowing who he was. At length, however, he granted him leave to 
play a few notes. Mendelssohn took his seat, and soon the most won- 
derful music was breaking forth from the organ. The custodian was 
spellbound. At length he came up beside the great musician and asked 
his name. Learning it, he stood humiliated, self -condemned, saying, 
' And I refused you permission to play upon my organ.' 

" There comes One to us and desires to take our lives and play upon 
them. But we withhold ourselves from Him and refuse Him permis- 
sion, when if we would but yield ourselves to Him, He would bring 
from our souls heavenly music." 



"A perfectly holy life would be a perfect song. At the best on the 
earth our lives our imperfect in their harmonies ; but if we are Christ's 
disciples we are learning to sing while here, and some day the music 
will be perfect. It grows in sweetness here just as we learn to do God's 
will on earth as it is done in heaven. 

" Only the Master's hand can bring out of our souls the music that 
slumbers in them. A violin lies on the table silent and without beauty. 
One picks it up and draws the bow across the strings, but it yields only 
wailing discords. Then a master comes and takes it up, and he brings 
from the little instrument the most marvelous music. Other men touch 
our lives and draw from them only jangled notes ; Christ takes them, 
and when He has put the chords in tune He brings from them the 
music of love and joy and peace." — J. R. Miller. D. D. 



V: 25-29 



ST. JOHN 



153 



25. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and 
now is, vvheu the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God : 
and they that hear shall live. 

26. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given 
to the Son to have life in himself; 

27. And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, 
because he is the Son of man. 

28. Marvel not at this ; for the hour is coming, in the which 
all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 

29. And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto 
the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the 
resurrection of damnation. 

" We are but organs mute till a master touches the 
keys — 
Verily, vessels of earth into which God poureth the wine; , 
Harps are we, silent harps that have hung in the willow-trees, 
Dumb till our heart-strings swell and break with a pulse divine." 



A. ». 28. 

Early in April. 

The Passover 

thai year was 

March 29 to 

April 5. 

second year of 

Christ's public 

ministry. 

the year of 

development. 

early in the 

GREAT 
GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 

The Pool 

of 
Betliesda. 



25, 27. Son of God; Son of Man. —The real Saviour of man must 
be the Son of God. (1) That He may have all power to save; (2) That 
He may be omnipresent wherever man and his needs are; (3) That He 
may be ever beyond and above man, always drawing him upward; (4) 
That all the love toward Him may be also love to God; (5) That He may 
be able to make atonement for sin. 

He must at the same time be the Son of Man. (1) That He may 
reveal Himself to men; (2) That He may not only sympathize with them, 
but that they may know and feel His sympathy; (3) That thus He may 
reach and touch their hearts; (4) That He may be able to make 
atonement for their sins. 



25, 28. The Resurrection of Life. —"Oh, if there were no resur- 
rection, how could we bear it ? Would not the thought crush us down 
for very grief into the same open grave ? Many of you will have read 
the famous vision of him who saw abridge of threescore and ten arches, 
which spanned the rolling waters of a prodigious tide, and how the 
Genius said to him, * The bridge thou seest is Human Life; consider it 
attentively.' ' And as I looked more attentively I saw several of the 
passengers dropping through the bridge into the great tide that flowed 
underneath it; and upon examination perceived that there were 
innumerable trap-doors concealed in the bridge, which the passengers 
no sooner trod upon, but they fell through them into the tide and 
immediately disappeared. My heart was filled with a deep melancholy 



154 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V 130, 3 1 

30. I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge : and my judgment is 
just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent 
me. 

31. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. 

to see several dropping unexpectedly in the midst of mirth and jollity, 
and catching at everything that stood by them to save themselves. 
Multitudes were very busy in the pursuit of bubbles that glittered in 
their eyes and danced before them; but often, when they thought them- 
selves within reach of them, their footing failed and down they sank.' 
* Alas ! ' said I, ' man was made in vain ! How is he given away to 
misery and mortality ! tortured in life and swallowed up in death ! ' " — 
F. W. Farrar. 

" Think you the notes of holy song 

On Milton's tuneful ear have died ? 
Think you that Raphael's angel throng 

Has vanished from his side ? 

" Oh, no ! we live our lives again, 

All warmly touched or coldly done. 
The pictures of the past remain, — 
Man's works shall follow on. 

" Still shall the soul around it call 

The shadows that it gathered here; 
And painted on the eternal wall, 
The past shall re- appear. 

" We shape ourselves the joy or fear 
Of which the coming life is made, 
And fill our future atmosphere 
With sunshine or with shade. 

" The tissue of the life to be 

We weave in colors all our own, 
And in the field of destiny 
We reap what we have sown." 



27. Execute Judgment. See under 16:11. 



29. Resurrection of Life ; Resurrection of Condemnation. — A 
German writer represents a good man as coming, after his death, to 



V: 32, 33 



ST. JOHN 



155 



A. D. 28. 

Early in April. 

The Passover 

that year was 

March 29 to 

April 5. 

second year of 

Christ's public 

ministry. 

the year of 

development. 

early in the 

GREAT 
GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 

Tlie Pool 

of 
Bethesda. 



32. IT There is another that beareth witness of me; and I 
know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. 
83. Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth. • 

the gates of heaven, and welcomed to its glories. An 

angel was commissioned to be his conductor and 

teacher. First he took him to a point where he could 

see the most fearful representation of sin when it had 

brought forth death. It was a fearful place, peopled 

with everything hateful, loathsome, and w r retched. 

His guide bade him look still farther down the dismal 

vault, and farther still, where were objects more 

anguished, and loathsome, and haggard with wasting 

woe. He bade him concentrate his vision on an 

object more hideous and disgusting than he ever 

could have imagined. "That," said his conductor, "in the ages of 

eternity would have been you, had you not repented and believed- 

Behold the woe and degradation from which you have 

been saved by the compassion of your Saviour ! " His 

guide then took him to a point from which could be seen 

the glories of the redeemed . He saw the highest ranks of 

angels, he heard their songs and hallelujahs, and was 

ravished. He was directed to look far beyond all these, and there he 

beheld an object more beautiful than the highest saint who had been 

longest in heaven, more blissful than seraph or archangel. He heard 

music ineffably more sweet than any which flowed from the harps of 

the angels nearest the throne. The excess of glory overpowered him. 

Then said his conductor, "That beautiful and enraptured being is 

yourself many ages hence. Behold the glory and the bliss to which 

you are exalted through the salvation of the Redeemer." 



A Vision 
of the 
Future. 



Mystery of Immortal Life. — " One more thing I might mention is 
immortality. St. Paul said it was a mystery. Writing to the Corinth- 
ians, being well aware that he had not made all things clear to his 
friends there, he asked this question that he might reply to it: "The 
dead are raised up, you say, but how are the dead raised up? What is 
the body with which they come ? " When he told them it was not any 
plainer than before. He said : " You put a grain of wheat into the 
ground and it parts with the form of its life and reappears as grain. 
God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him." Then he changed the 
illustration and said: " It is like a boy building a snow house. He goes 
inside the snow house, and by and by the snow melts, but the boy does 



156 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V : 34-37 



34. But I receive not testimony from mau: but these things I say, that ye might 
be saved. 

35. lie was a burning and a shining light: and ye were Willing for a season to 
rejoice in his light. 

3ii. H But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the 
Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that 
the Father hath sent me. 

37 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Te 
have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. 



not melt. So this earthly-house of our tabernacle is going to melt away, 
and then we are going to be out in the open. But with what body do 
we come? In your own body ; a body like Christ's body." "Explain 
it more fully." I cannot now ; you will know soon enough ; you are 
not in a great hurry to know. If Christ should come, or you should 
die to-night, you would know. Don't be impatient ; only know that 
whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap. If a man lives a selfish 
life up to the moment of his death, he will begin the selfish life the 
moment afterwards. There is no break in life. There is no shock in 
crossing from world to world more than when a ship sails across the 
meridian." — Alexander McKenzie, Northfield Echoes, 1897, No. 2. 



30. Not Mine Own Will, But the Will of the Father. — " The end 
of life is not to do good, although many of us think so. It is not to win 
souls, although I once thought so. The end of life is to do the will of 
God That may be in the line of doing good or winning souls, or it may 
not. For the individual, the answer to the question, " What is the end 
of my life?" is "To do the will of God, whatever that may be." 
Spurgeon replied to an invitation to preach to an exceptionally large 
audience, " I have no ambition to preach to 10,000 people, but to do the 
will of God," and he declined. If we could have no ambition past the 
will of God, our lives would be successful. The maximum achievement 
of any man's life, after it is all over, is to have done the will of God. 
No man or woman can have done any more with a life : no Luther, no 
Spurgeon, no Wesley, no Melancthon, can have done any more with 
their lives, and a dairy maid or a scavenger can do as much. There is 
no happiness or success in any life until that principle is taken possession 
of." — Prof. Drummond. 



35. He (John) Was a Burning and a Shining Light, Xvxvos. a lamp, 
a light-bearer, as contrasted with <f>«s. light. John was a lamp lighted 
by God. Jesus was a Light shining of Himself. 



V : 34-37 



ST. JOHN 



157 



Candle Emblems. — " Emblematically ministers are 
called candles (Zech.i v.; Rev. i., xi. 4). The Rabbis 
were called k Candles of the Law; Lamps of the Light.' 
Light an I fire were symbols of God (chap. i. 4, iii. 
20). Lamps are required only in the sun's absence, so 
at Christ's coming John disappears. The church is 
symbolized under the sign of a candlestick (Rev. i. 20). 
Caravans in the desert at night are preceded by a 
brilliant lantern, which lights all who follow. Should 
the bearer be careless, ' Let your light shine ' sounds 
from all. Christ was never called, like John, a ' light- 
bearer ; ' the word light as applied to Him is entirely 
different." — W. H. Van Doren, D. D. 



A.D. 28. 

Early in April. 

The Passover 

that year was 

March 29 to 

April 5. 

second year of 

Christ's public 

ministry. 

the year of 

development. 

early in the 

GREAT 
GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 

Tlie Pool 

of 
Betliesda. 



Library. — Spurgeon's Sermons in Candles (Armstrong & Co.) is full 
of capital illustrations from lamps and light. The book grew out of a lec- 
ture, which arose from a statement made by Mr. Spurgeon in address- 
ing the students in his college. He said that a sermon without 
illustrations was like a house without windows. One student remarked 
that the difficulty was to get illustrations in any great abundance. 
" Yes," I said, "if you do not wake up, but go through the world 
asleep, you cannot see illustrations, but if your minds were thoroughly 
aroused, and yet you could see nothing else in the world but a single 
tallow candle, you might find enough illustrations in that luminary to 
last you for six months." This statement drew forth, as it were, a 
groan of unbelief. l< Well," I said, " I will prove my words," and the 
attempt to prove them produced the first lecture which, twenty -five 
years later, had grown into this book, full of illustrations on this verse 



Tele Torch-Bearer. — John was not a permanent sun ; he was the 
torch which cannot burn without consuming itself. Critics have inter- 
preted the article as signifying the torch par excellence, as alluding to 
Sir. xlviii. 1, "the word (of Elias) shone like a torch," and as compar- 
ing John to the well-known torch-bearer who walked before the bride- 
groom in the nuptial procession ; but the article simply means the 
light, of which there never was more than one in the house. — F. 
Godet, D. D. 



Burning and Shining Lives. — Some shine, but do not burn ; others 
burn, but do not shine. True grace in the soul does both. Basil thun- 
dered in his preaching and lightened in his life. Of the martyrs Rogers 



158 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V : 34-37 

and Bradford it was difficult to decide whether their eloquence or their 
holiness shone the brighter. — Van Dor en. 



Seeing the Light a Man Carries. — " A man was sent up a dan- 
gerous mountain by night to light a beacon. His friends, anxiously 
watching, could not see him as he went, but they could see the light of 
the lantern that he carried." Men should see not us, but our good 
deeds. 



Burning. — Gives heat, warmth, comfort, purification. 



Shining. — Gives light, life, color, beauty. 



Epitaph on a Vanished Star. — 

" On pure white stone whereon, like crown on brow, 
The image of the Vanished Star was set ; 
And this was graven on the pure white stone 
In golden letters — While She Lived She Shone." 

— Jean Ingelow. 



Light Shining. — "' Lamps do not talk, but they do shine. A light- 
house sounds no drum, it beats no gong, and yet far over the waters its 
friendly spark is seen by the mariner. So let your actions shine out 
your religion. Let the main sermon of your life be illustrated by all 
your conduct." — Spurgeon. 



A man once said. "I have no more influence than a farthing rush- 
light." " Well," was the reply, "a farthing rush-light can do a good 
deal. It can light a light-house lamp that will save many a ship. It 
can start a fire that will keep many a creature from freezing to death. 
It can enable the wayfarer to read the directions on the guide-board; 
it can give you light to read God's Word." 



Light from Martyr Fires. — When Bishops Ridley and Latimer 
were going to the stake in Oxford, to be burned as martyrs, Bp. Lati- 
mer said, "Be of good cheer, Master Ridley. We shall light such a 
candle, by God's grace, in England this day as, I trust, shall never be 
put out again." 

Willing for a Season to Rejoice (<ryaX.Xiaor6iiv(H) in His Light. — 
The word for rejoice means to exult, to glory in. "They were 



V : 38-40 



ST. JOHN 



159 



38. And ye have not his word abiding in you: for-whom he 
hath sent, him ye believe not. 

39. H Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have 
eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. 

40. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. 

attracted by His b?-ightness, not by His warmth." — 
Bengel. They basked in His rays, but the lamps of 
their souls were not kindled by His. 



A. D. 28, 

Early in April. 

The Passover 

that year was 

March 2g to 

April 5. 

second year of 

Christ's public 

ministry. 

the year of 
development, 
early in the 

GREAT 
GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 

36. The Works that I Do Bear Witness of Me. The Pool 
What an array of witnesses they might have found Betliesda 
had they wished to learn the truth ! Here a company 
of those who had been lame, but now were running 
to tell the story of their healing ; there a band of those who had been 
blind, but now could see ; lepers who had been cleansed; demoniacs 
clothed and in their right mind; sick raised from their beds, and dead 
brought to life again; sad hearts comforted; sinful souls redeemed; 
ignorant minds enlightened; wandering ones restored. 



37. The Father Himself hath Borne Witness of Me. — In the 
British Art Exhibit at the Columbian Exposition, there was a remark- 
able picture of a blacksmith's shop. All the homely details — the 
smoky walls and rafters, the lurking shadows, the forms and faces of 
the men showing in the half-lights — were portrayed with singular 
fidelity. 

But the greatest artistic triumph appeared in the marvelous reflec- 
tion upon a boy's face, of light from an unseen forge. The ruddy glow, 
illuminating the sturdy figure and honest features of the 
rugged fellow busy with his work, was simply wonderful. The Bright 
No need to picture the red flames of the forge beyond ; Reflection, 
their existence was distinctly evident. The bright reflec- 
tion proved their presence and their power. 

So it is always. A vivid reflection is invincible proof of light 
somewhere. 

While hands are busy with common work, the face may shine with 
radiant reflection of light divine, and the quiet life may be illuminated, 
if the worker will keep near to the Unseen Source. — From ' ' Bright 
TJireads,'' by Julia H. Johnston. 



39. Search the Scriptures. — 

" Thy Word is like a deep, deep mine; 
And jewels rich and rare, 



l6o SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V : 38-4O 

Are hidden in its mighty depths, 
For ev'ry searcher there. 

Thy Word is like a starry host, 

A thousand rays of light 
Are seen to guide the traveler, 

And make his pathway bright. 

Thy Word is like a glorious choir, 

And loud its anthems ring, 
Though many tongues and parts unite, 

It is one song they sing. 

Thy Word is like an armory, 

Where soldiers may repair, 
And find for life's long battle day, 

All needful weapons there." 



Dr. Fuller's Experience. — " Lord, this morning I read a chapter 
in the Bible, and therein observed a memorable passage whereof I 
never took notice before. Why now, and no sooner, did I see it ? For- 
merly my eyes were as open, and the letters as legible. Is there not a 
thin veil laid over Thy Word, which is more rarefied by reading, and at 
last wholly worn away ? . . . I see the oil of Thy Word will never 
leave increasing while any bring an empty barrel." 

" The Old Testament will still be a New Testament to him who comes 
with a fresh desire of information. How fruitful are the seeming bar- 
ren places of Scripture. Bad plowmen which make balks of such 
ground ! Wheresoever the surface of God's word doth not laugh and 
sing with corn, the heart thereof within is merry with mines." — 
Thomas Fuller, in Good Thoughts for Bad Times. 



Butterflies or Bees. — "To some the Bible is uninteresting and 
unprofitable because they read too fast. Among the insects which sub. 
sist on the sweet sap of flowers there are two very different classes. 
One is remarkable for its imposing plumage, which shows in the sun- 
beams like the dust of gems ; and as you watch its jaunty gyrations 
over the fields and its minuet dance from flower to flower, you cannot 
help admiring its graceful activity, for it is plainly getting over a good 
deal of ground. But in the same field there is another worker, whose 
brown vest and strong straightforward flight may not have arrested 
your eye. His fluttering neighbor darts down hero and there, and sips 
elegantly wherever he can find a drop of ready nectar ; but this dingy 



V : 38-40 



ST. JOHN 



161 



plodder makes a point of alighting everywhere, and 
wherever he alights he either finds honey or makes it. 
If the flower-cup be deep, he goes down to the bot- 
tom ; if its dragon mouth be shut, he thrusts its lips 
asunder ; and if the nectar be peculiar or recondite, 
he explores all about till he discovers it, and then, 
having ascertained the knack of it, joyful as one who 
has found great spoil, he sings his way down into its 
luscious recesses. His rival of the painted velvet 
wing has no patience for such dull and long-winded 
details. But what is the end ? Why, the one died 
last October along with the flowers ; the other is warm 
in his hive to-night amidst the fragrant stores which 
he gathered beneath the bright beams of summer. To 
which do you belong? — the butterflies or the bees? 
Do you search the Scriptures or only skim them ? " 
D. D. 



A. ». 28. 

Early in April. 

The Passover 

that year was 

March 29 to 

April 5. 

second year of 

Christ's public 

ministry. 

the year of 

development. 

early in the 

GREAT 
GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 

Tlie Pool 

of 
Betliesda. 



J. Hamilton, 



Unmeasured Depths of Scripture Truths. —The Scriptures are 
like a mine over which we have often walked without knowing the 
treasures beneath our feet. They are like the powers of nature, which 
have always contained the treasures of the telegraph, telephone, of 
electricity, of steam for power, of coal for warming, and yet men did 
not know these riches for ages. ' ' In olden times a duke craved from a 
king his daughter's hand in marriage. The king answered by handing 
him a rough iron ball. Indignant, the duke threw it to the ground, 
when lo! a spring struck, the ball opened and displayed a silver chicken; 
this, a golden egg : this, a marriage-ring, complete and gorgeous, set 
with precious diamonds." So the Bible contains hidden treasures, 
enclosed one within the other. The more we study, the more we shall 
find. 



Blank Pages of the Bible. — "I dare say none of you ever saw a 
kind of ink used for secret writing. Common ink, you know, leaves 
a very plain mark on the paper ; but this ink of which I am speaking, 
fades away directly it is used, and the paper seems to be blank. But if 
that sheet of paper is held to the fire, the writing comes out and can be 
read easily. Now to a great many people the pages of the Bible, especi- 
ally of the Old Testament, seem all blank, without any beauty or inter- 
est. But if you learn to read God's word with care and intelligence, 
above all, if you pray to God to show you the true meaning, the pages 
11 



l62 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V : 38-40 

which seemed blank before will be full of interest for you." —if. J. W. 
Buxton, M. A. 



Lirrary. — Rogers' Eclipse of Faith, "The Blank Bible." 



Enough to Guide, More to Learn. — Any one can easily know 
enough of the Scriptures to see the way to heaven, and to be guided 
safely through life ; as a child may know enough of nature for the 
ordinary purposes of living. Yet, as in God's works of nature there 
are untold treasures, and all that even modern science has gained is but 
a little spray from the great ocean, a small sheaf from the boundless 
harvest of good things God has laid up for man's blessing, so there are 
yet untold treasures in the Word of God. We are like children who 
having learned to read and spell, imagine that we have some concep- 
tion of the vast and glorious literature into which the simple letters of 
the alphabet can be formed. 

' ' Upward we press, the air is clear 
And the sphere-music heard ; 
The Lord hath yet more light and truth 
To break forth from His word." 



Library. — In Washington Irving's Alhambra is a story of "The 
Moor's Legacy." A vast treasure was hidden within the mountain, but 
it required three things to obtain it, — diligent search, certain written 
words and the living voice. These three best reveal to us the treasures 
of the Scriptures. 



Scriptures, What They are Like. — "It is said of some of the 
mines of Cornwall that the deeper they are sunk the richer they prove : 
and though some lodes have been followed a thousand and even fifteen 
hundred feet, they have not come to an end. Such is the Book of God. 
It is a mine of wealth which can never be exhausted. The deeper we 
sink into it, the richer it becomes." — Rev. Charles Graham. 

The Scriptures are like a mansion with many rooms opening into one 
another You open one door and it reveals several other doors. The 
more we study the Scriptures the more we see there is to learn. It is 
the same with nature. A piece of glass becomes a lens by which whole 
worlds are revealed in heaven. The electricity which, in some form, has 
been known for ages, becomes light and power. 



LIBRARY. — See the interpretation by Ruskin of a few lines of Milton's 
Comus, in his Sesame and Lilies. 



V : 38-40 



ST. JOHN" 



163 



Near- Sighted Glasses. — A ministerial friend of 
mine was very nearsighted in his boyhood. Till he 
was twelve years old he never saw a distant prospect 
or viewed a landscape. All talk about such things 
was mere uncomprehended imagination to him. At 
that age his father gave him near-sighted spectacles, 
and for the first time he knew what a landscape was. 
It was like the creation of a new world, though that 
world had always been there, bat unseen. An experi- 
ence like this has been mine in reference to some 
portions of the Bible. Deeper and long continued 
study, and the help which others have given me, 
were the near-sighted spectacles which revealed the 
new world to me. 



A. D. 28. 

Early in April. 

The Passover 

that year was 

March 29 to 

April 5. 

second year of 

Christ's public 

ministry. 

the year of 

development. 
early in the 

GREAT 
GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

Tlie Pool 

of 
Betliesda. 



Aids to Vision. — We can often see a thing very clearly after it is 
pointed out to us, which yet entirely escaped our notice before. A pic- 
ture explained by an artist has been a new picture ever since, though 
we had seen ic many times. A fact of nature pointed out by a scientist 
has illumined some portions of God's works which were unknown 
before. Ruskin's fifth volume of Modern Painters has opened the eyes 
of many to see in clouds and trees and leaves a multitude of things 
which were unseen, though plain before the eyes. The same is true of 
many of the best books. 



Ruskin's Bible Training. — John Ruskin. in his autobiography, tells 
of the foundation on which the character of this remarkable man was 
reared. "After our chapters (from two to three a day, according to 
their length) , the first thing after breakfast (and no interruption from 
servants allowed, none from visitors, who either joined in the reading 
or had to stay upstairs, and none from any visiting or excursions, 
except real traveling) I had to learn a few verses by heart, or repeat, to 
make sure I had not lost something of what was already known : and 
with the chapters thus gradually possessed from the first to the last, I 
had to learn the whole body of the fine old Scotch paraphrases, which 
are good, melodious, and forceful verses, and to which, together with 
the Bible itself, I owe the first cultivation of my ear to sound." 
" Though I have picked up the elements of a little further knowledge 
— in mathematics, meteorology, and the like, in after life — and owe 
not a little to the teaching of many people, this material installation of 
my mind in that property of chapters I count very confidently the most 
precious, and, on the whole, the one essential part of my education."-— 
John Ruskin. 



164 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V : 38-40 

"Young writers are often advised to give their days and nights, if 
they would acquire a good English style, to the reading of this or that 
author. Our advice is that they read the Bible —read it aloud, until 
ear and brain become saturated with its sound and phraseology, and 
the heart with its truths." — Ruskin. 



Finding the Bible by seeking the truth there, loving and obeying it, 
is like lighting up the dark wires of an electric light or the black iron of 
a gas-pipe. It is like the clearing away of a fog. 



The Bible is like a microscope, showing us the wondrous depth, extent, 
and pervasiveness of man's sin and God's love and providence, and of 
His law. It is also like a telescope, bringing the distant heavens near, 
showing the marvellous reach of God's wisdom, power, and love. 



Foot Lamps. — I heard not long ago as an illustration of the text 
" Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet," that in Jerusalem men sometimes 
walk the dark and narrow streets with a candle upon the toe of their 
boots as miners here carry them upon their hats. The story was 
regarded as doubtful by one who had lived long in Jerusalem. But 
last summer at Saratoga, in the house of Panza, which is a reproduction 
of an ancient house of Pompeii about the time of Christ, I saw a foot from 
that city with the lamp upon it, and a statement that it had been dis- 
covered that such was once the custom. Let the Bible be held close to 
the path in which we walk, that we may avoid the dangers and keep 
the way. 

The Bible Interpreted by Love. — "You have heard of the story of 
the blind girl who, when her fingers became callous, cut her finger tips 
to make them more sensitive. This, however, only made them harder, 
and then she could not read her Bible at all. At last, after bitter weep- 
ing, she kissed her Bible a farewell. To her intense joy, that kiss 
revealed to her the fact that she could read the raised words with a 
touch of her lips. Ever after she kissed into her soul that precious 
Word." — H. M. Scudder, D. D. 



Not Understanding the Scriptures. --(1) Sometimes they are mis- 
represented, as if one were dressed up in such strange clothes that his 
friends do not know him. (2) Men often read, not to find what is in 
the Bible, but to find what they want in it. So Ruskin says that people 



V :38-40 



ST. JOHN 



l6 5 



see in nature not all there is, but what they look for. 
(3) Men look at the Bible with prejudice, as if through 
a colored glass or one of those mirrors which distort 
the features. 



A. D. 27. 

Early in April. 

The Passover 

that year was 

March 29 to 

April 5. 

second year of 

Christ's public 

ministry. 

the year of 
development. 

early in the 

GREAT 
GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 

Tlie Pool 

of 
Betiiesda. 



Story of Nansen. — "Among the personal effects 
which Dr. Nansen took with him was a phonograph. 
Into this his wife had sung her sweetest songs, and his 
babe lifted up its infant voice. In the loneliness of 
the far north he could again hear the familiar accents 
and re-enter the home circle. Fatigued, here was rest. 
If ever discouraged, here was cheer. If ill, loved 
voices would bring a balm. 

Did you ever think of the Bible as a phonograph, t 
into which God has spoken ? When life seemed more 
dreary than the icy Arctic, have you ever turned to the book for com- 
panionship and courage ? Into it God has spoken for your hours of 
sorrow, of weakness and trial. For all the moods of men the Bible has 
a message. For each condition in life, for every experience, it has 
direction and wisdom. Let us learn from the explorer the superior 
value of the Bible as a vehicle of comfort and rest to the soul." — Rev. 
Warren P. Flanders. 



How to Search the Scriptures. — "As the apes in the story, who, 
finding a glow-worm on a very cold night, took it for a spark of fire, 
and heaped up sticks upon it to warm themselves by, but all in vain, so 
do they lose their labor that, in the warrantable search of Divine truth, 
busy themselves about sounds of words, and so deceive their own souls, 
crying out, like the mathematician in Syracuse, ' I have found it, I have 
found it,' when indeed they have found nothing to the purpose." — Bib. 
Illustrator. 



Search the Scriptures by Learning by Hea.rt. — The best portions 
of the Bible should be learned by heart. Such verses will be a constant 
education both of heart and mind. It will bring us into intimate com- 
munion and companionship with the best people and the best thoughts 
in the world. We repeat them in our walks ; we let them shine within 
us during our daily tasks. 



Search the Scriptures, by Reading them consecutively, a whole 
book at a sitting. 

Search the Scriptures by Taking a Broad View of Them, as an 
artist views a landscape, or a geographer studies a country. 



l66 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V : 38-4O 

When one who has been accustomed to study the Bible only by single 
texts, or detached portions, first sees them combined into one beautiful 
whole, as in a period of divinely guided history, or the perfect life of 
Christ, the vision comes to him almost like a new revelation. Separate 
colors and forms are one thing ; the cathedral window made out of them 
is another and diviner work. 

Individual events are like sentences written on the sky in letters so 
large that but one word can be read at a time. The consecutive history 
is the story those words reveal when seen and read together. 

A single star reveals the glory of God, but the whole universe of stars 
has meanings and glories the single star can never show. 

" Oh that I knew how all thy lights combine, 
And the configuration of their storie ; 
Seeing not only how each verse doth shine, 
But all the constellations in their glorie." 

One of the best fruits of the Higher Criticism is found in the increased 
attention it has awakened toward this method of study. The method 
is of value whatever the knowledge or estimation of the results which 
some of the critics have reached. 



Search the Scriptures by Mining, or as a botanist studies flowers, 
or a farmer the soil. 

Studying the words and phrases of the Bible often reveals treasures 
over which we have walked unconsciously all our lives. 

Many of our words contain whole poems ; others are volumes of 
history or philosophy. Dr. Burton says: "Take up the commonest 
words of daily speech, and pat them to your ear, and they will sing like 
shells from the sea. There are whole poems in them, epics, idyls of 
every sort." 

In Luke 10: 40, Martha asks Jesus to bid her sister Mary help her. 
The word for help is a compound word o-vvavTi\dpT)Tai, sun together 
with, anti, "over against, on the other side," and labetai, "to take hold 
of." So that the thought is that Mary take hold of the burden on the 
other side, and lift it together with Martha. The same word is used but 
once more in the New Testament, in Rom. 8: 26, where we are told that 
the Spirit helpeth our infirmities. The Spirit takes hold of the burden 
of our infirmities, on the side over against us, and bears them together 
with us. 

Again in Acts 2: 26, " my flesh shall rest in hope," the word rest 
means to dwell in a tent or tabernacle. " It is a beautiful metaphor," says 
Professor Vincent ; " My flesh shall encamp on hope ; pitch its tent there 
to rest through the night of death., until the morning of resurrection." 



V : 3 8-40 



ST. JOHN 



167 



The Bible is full of such picturesque and poetic 
words. 



Searching the Scriptures by Means of Art. — 
Mr. Ruskin says that " great nations write their auto- 
biographies in three manuscripts — the book of their 
deeds, the book of their words, and the book of their 
art. Not one of these books can be understood unless 
we read the two others." Teachers can often gain 
both vividness and light from the numerous pictures 
of Bible scenes by the greatest artists. 



A. D. 28. 

Early in April. 

The Passover 

that year was 

March 29 to 

April 5. 

second year of 

Christ's public 

ministry. 

the year of 
development. 

early in the 

GREAT 
GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

The Pool 

of 
Bethesda. 



A Peculiar Literary Test. — " In a certain college 
where the Bible is usually studied one hour in a week, 
at the first exercise of the freshman class for the 
college year 1894-95, thirty -four young men were 
present — thirty-three of whom were connected with religious organiza- 
tions. There were nine Congregationalists, nine Presbyterians, five Meth- 
odists, three Baptists, two of the Reformed Church, two Jews, one Free 
Baptist, one Unitarian, and one Roman Catholic. They were about 
twenty years old. To test the biblical knowledge of these thirty-four 
college students, this college president wrote out on the blackboard 
twenty-two quotations from the writings of the most noted English- 
speaking poet of the present century, Alfred Tennyson, with whose 
writings all educated persons are more or less familiar. These twenty- 
two extracts all contained references or allusions to the Holy Scriptures. 
These are all given in the New York Independent for November 8, 1894, 
with the results of the test. Of the twenty-two I select only those 
referring to the Gospels. "With pencil and paper before them, the 
thirty -four students were requested to explain what Tennyson referred 
to in each passage. 

1 ' ' My sin was a thorn 

Among the thorns that girt Thy brow." — Supposed Confessions. 

2 " Arimathaean Joseph." — The Holy Grail. 

3 " For I have flung thee pearls and find thee swine." 

— The Last Tournament. 

4 " Perhaps, like him of Cana in Holy Writ, 

Our Arthur kept his best until the last." — The Holy Grail. 

5 " The church on Peter's rock." — Queen Mary. 

6 "Follow Light and do the Right — for man can half control his 

doom — 
Till you find the deathless Angel seated in the vacant tomb. " 

— Locksley Hall, Sixty Years After. 



1 68 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V : 38-4O 

Here is the result of the examination : 
25 of the 34 understood the allusion in No. 1 . . and 9 failed. 



11 of the 34 understood the allusion in No. 2 

12 of the 34 understood the allusion in No. 3 
24 of the 34 understood the allusion in No. 4 

9 of the 34 understood the allusion in No. 5 
16 of the 34 understood the allusion in No. 6 



and 23 failed, 
and 22 failed, 
and 10 failed, 
and 25 failed, 
and 18 failed. 



It might be well to test our older scholars' kno wedge in the same way 
by these passages. Or, still better, sometime, with the whole list, and 
with some of the more than five hundred passages in Shakespeare which 
contain references or allusions to the Scriptures. 

In Them Ye Think Ye Have Eternal Life. — Green, in his Short 
History of the English People, Chap. VIII., gives a marvelous testimony 
to the effect of the printed Bible in Elizabeth's reign. " No greater 
moral change ever passed over a nation than passed over England dur- 
ing the years which parted the middle of the reign of Elizabeth from 
the meeting of the Long Parliament. England became the people of a 
book, and that book was the Bible." Its literary and social effects were 
great, "but far greater was the effect of the Bible on the character of 
the people at large." (i One dominant influence told on human action." 
" The whole temper of the nation felt the change." " A new concep- 
tion of life, a new moral and religious impulse spread through every 
class." — J. R. Green, M. A. 

" Be thou my star in reason's night; 
Be thou my rock in danger's fright; 
Be thou my guide mid passion's sway; 
My moon by night, my sun by day." 

Dean Milman to his Bible. 

40. Ye Will Not Come to Me. — ' 'All unavoided is the doom of 
destiny," is the language of moral weakness; but faith makes quick 
reply, " Yes, when avoided grace makes destiny." This is the thought 
which gives such unutterable sadness to wasted lives — " It might have 
been otherwise." They were not powers of evil alone which took the 
soul by the hand and led it into the labyrinth of the world. The angels 
of love, the voice of mercy, the Spirit of God, were near to raise the 
mind and to direct the life. This is the element which creates all true 
and high tragedy, and without which the creations of human genius 
are but a medley of irrelevant disasters, and not a true picturing of 
character and life. This one feature it is which sets (I speak for myself) 



V: 41-47 



ST. JOHN 



t6 9 



41. I receive not honour from men. 

42. But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. 

43. I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: 
if another shall come in his own uame, him ye will receive. 

44. How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, 
and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? 

45. Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father : there 
is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. 

46. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me : 
for he wrote of me. 

47. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe 
my words '? 



A. D. 28. 

Early in April. 

The Passover 

that year was 

March 29 to 

AJ>ril 5. 

second year of 

Christ's pl'blic 

ministry. 

the year of 

development. 

early in the 

GREAT 
GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 

The Pool 

of 
Bethesda. 



the play of Macbeth foremost in the great trilogy 
of our own Shakespeare ; and this thought that 
it might have been otherwise, as it is the pivot 
of all human tragedy, so does it furnish the most pathetic power 
of the divine utterances, for there is no pathos equal to that which is 
the cry of love over a glorious life which might have been saved, and 
was not ; which might have been made lustrous with high and holy 
deeds, but was not. And when it is power and love weeping over the 
reckless waste of man's noblest heritage ; when it is boundless power — 
unbounded save by the high homage it pays to the creatures it has 
made ; when it is infinite love which will do all to save the offspring of 
its hand, except degrade and unman him by irresistible coercion ; which 
scorns because it is love, to enforce a homage which is unwillingly ren- 
dered — then every element of tragedy is present ; love, yearning power 
only limited by its self-imposed restraints, looking forth in sadness, not 
upon human helplessness, but upon human wilfulness. This gives the 
most touching pathos to divine records. I have searched through liter- 
ature, I have read many a touching and tender passage, I have read the 
tear awakening lament of " In Memoriam," I have been stirred to gen- 
erous passion by the loving lines of Hood over the unfortunate for 
whose life society seemed responsible, I have listened to the frenzied 
wail of Hecuba in her abounding grief, I have seen the old Greek hero 
baffled by the darkness and I have heard his cry for light ; but I have 
never met with pathos so moving as the cry of Omnipotence and Love, 
" Ye will not come to me that ye might have life ! '■ — Christian Union. 



So from the heights of Will 
Life's parting stream descends 

And, as a moment turns its slender rill 
Each widening torrent bends. 



IjO SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V:4I~47 

From the same cradle's side 

From the same mother's knee, 
One to long darkness and the frozen tide 

One to the peaceful sea. " — O. W. Holmes. 



44. How Can Ye Believe, etc. — In a recent lecture (1893) before the 
students of the Chicago Theological Institute, Mr. Moody gave the fol- 
lowing object lesson: "The Spirit cleanses the believer through the 
Word. People close up their Bibles and then wonder why they do not 
become holy." He then took a pitcher of water and began to pour it 
into a bottle filled with a dark fluid. The water drove out the fluid, 
and was rapidly making the contents look clear. Then he put the cork 
in the bottle and continued to pour the water. " That," he said, " illus- 
trates the people who stop up their minds with unbelief. The Word 
does not get in, and their minds are poisoned and tainted with evil. 
Many people sit in church with their minds corked up, and the minister 
pours on the Word, but it all goes outside. The people should be pre- 
pared to receive the message as much as the minister to give it." 



The Temple op Honor and Virtue.— 

" There was a people once by wisest counsels steered, 
Who Temples twain to Virtue and to Honor reared. 
Excepting through the first — they stood so wall to wall — 
No one within the second one could get at all. 
As forecourt unto Honor's Temple, Virtue's stood, 
'Through merit praise is reached,' such was the moral good. 
An age did those two temples thus together stand 
And all was noble-toned and prosperous in the land, 
But long ago did Virtue's solemn temple fall, 
And Honor's shrine, profaned, is open now to all." 

— Oriental, in Foster's Cyc. Illustrations. 



VI: I 



ST. JOHN 



171 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE BREAD OF LIFE. 



1. After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, 
which is the sea of Tiberias. 

A whole year, the SECOND year of Christ's min- 
istry — the year OF development, intervenes between 
chapters V and VI, recorded in Matthew 4: 12- 14: 12 ; 
Mark 1:14-6:29; Luke 4: 14-9: 9. 



A. D. 29. 

April. 

Just before the 

Passover^ 

which was 

April 16-24. 

THIRD YEAR 

DURING THE 

GREAT 

GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 

PLAIN OF 
BUTAIHA 

BELONGING 
TO 

BETHSAIDA. 

JOHN BAPTIST 

BEHEADED IN 

MARCH, A. D. 29, 

JUST BEFORE 

THIS MIRACLE. 

JESUS BETWEEN 

32 AND 33 YEARS 

OLD. 

Feeding 

the Five 

Thousand. 



1. Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee. — Two 
reasons are given, both growing out of the martyrdom 
of John at Castle Macherus, by Herod Antipas. 

(1) The first was the need of going outside of Herod's 
dominions ; for in the excitement Herod might seek 
to murder Jesus Himself and His disciples, for they 
were as opposed to Herod's crimes as was John. The 
shadow of His own fate a year later fell over Him. 
The populace were doubtless greatly excited over this 
event, and there was danger of a political revolt, 
which was entirely contrary to the plans and purposes 
of Jesus, but which might center around His person We see how the 
people tried to make Him a king immediately after the feeding of the 
five thousand (John 6:15). It is quite probable therefore 
that Jesus was having another fierce battle with the First 
tempter like that in the third temptation in the wilder- Reason, 
ness, when He was offered all the kingdoms of the world 
and the glory of them ; for the night following he spent in prayer upon 
the mountain side. 

(2.) The other reason was the need of rest for the disciples. They 
had been sent over Galilee to heal and preach, a part of 
their training, and when the news of John's murder Second 
reached them they hastened to Jesus as chickens run to their Reason, 
mother when the hawk is sailing over their heads. There 
was chance for rest at Capernaum. 

They needed this restful retirement (1) for physical rest ; (2) for 
instruction in review of their labors ; (3) for communion with God , (4) 



172 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 2-4 



2. And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he 
did on them that were diseased. 

3. And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. 

4. And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. 

for that wider and truer view of their work which comes from seeing 
it as a whole, as a landscape is seen from a mountain top. 



The Need of Rest. — No one can do his best work without periods of 
rest from work. Every tree and plant must have its resting time. We 
put our hyacinths in the dark a few weeks if we would have them 
bloom well. There is a kind of crystalizing process, an "unconscious 
cerebration," going on in the mind and in the soul during these periods 
of rest. Moreover, the fountain needs often filling if it would flow 
freely, and we cry out : — 

" O bliss of blisses, to be freed 

From all the cares with which this world is driven, 
With liberty and endless time to read 
The libraries of heaven." 



Resting Times. — " It was a grand, if one-sided saying of one of God's 
workers : ' Let us toil on now. There will be time enough to rest in 
eternity.' The most willing workers need times of rest on earth. So 
the stillness and restfulness of night succeeds the stirring day, and the 
quiet Sabbath rest comes round after six days of labor. But what 
would life be if it were all passed in night and rest ? That man only 
can enjoy rest who has won it by honest work. Bunyan's armed man 
had to fight through opposing ranks before he could sit down to rest 
and banqueting. Hercules won the rest of Olympus through toils and 
sufferings. Even the Olympic gods passed through the fiery ordeal of 
battle before they could enjoy the divine calm of Olympus. It is true 
that a rest remains for the people of God ; let us not forget the further 
truth, that we must 'labor ... to enter into that rest.' " — Sunday 
School Times. 



2. Because They Saw His Miracles. — "Signs," signs of spiritual 
truths, of His goodness and love. 

The way to draw crowds to the gospel is to have something which 
men need, in a form that appeals to their hungering souls. There is 
little use in ringing the bell, be it never so loud, to call men to empty 
tables. It is the gold that draws men to the Klondike mines. 



VI: 5-7 



ST. JOHN 



173 



5. T[ When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great 
company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we 
buy bread, that these may eat*? 

6. And this he said to prove him : for he himself knew what 
he would do. 

7. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread 
is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a 
little. 

Jesus did not repulse any because they came to 
Him from the lower motives ; but He sent them away 
with better ones. The motives that lead men to good- 
ness are not necessarily the motives of those that live 
goodness. They are steps to the house, not the rooms 
of the house. They are roads to the city, not the city 
itself. If even 

" Of our vices we can frame 
A ladder, if we will but tread 
Beneath our feet each deed of shame,"' 
how much more is it true of our lower motives ! 



-* 



A. ». 29. 

April. 

Just before the 

Passover, 

which was 

April 16-24. 

THIRD YEAR 

DURING THE 

GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

PLAIN OF 
BUTAIHA 

BELONGING 
TO 

BETHSAIDA. 

JOHN BAPTIST 

BEHEADED IN 

MARCH, A. D. 29, 

JUST BEFORE 

THIS MIRACLE. 

JESUS BETWEEN 

32 AND 33 YEARS 

OLD. 

Feeding 
the Five 

Th 011 •.and. 



3. He Sat with His Disciples, teaching them, teaching the multi- 
tudes and healing their sick (Mk. 6 : 34 ; Luke 9 : 11). 

Jesus knows our temporal wants as well as our spiritual. 
But now, as then, He ever leads us through earthly to Teaching and 
spiritual blessings. The lower are the means to the higher. Healing 
All workers for Jesus must follow this example. Chris- Should Go 
tianity is a river of blessings flowing through the world, Together, 
blessings to the bodies and minds, as well as the souls of 
men. And blessing the body is a proof of its power to bless the soul, 
and of the sincerity of those who teach and preach. 



5. The Hungering Multitudes — The people "as sheep without a 
shepherd," wandering from home, weary, sick and hungry, 
was a picture of the great world, The people need eternal A Picture of 
life ; they need to have their souls nourished and strength- the World. 
ened ; they need to be satisfied with love and forgiveness 
and hope and faith and courage ; they need happiness and comfort and 
peace and health ; they are dying for want of the bread of life. 



Pictures — Feeding of the Five Tliousand. — By Dore, 
(Seville, Spain) by Giotto (St. Peter's, Rome). 



by Murillo 



174 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 8, 9 

8. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him, 

9. There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes : but 
what are they among so many? 

Jesus Had Compassion on Them. — Sojourner Truth was seeking her 
stolen child, without money or influence, or knowledge of what to do. 
She thought to herself, God has money and all I need; then she 
went to Him and said, " O Lord, if I was as rich as You be, and You was 
as poor as I be, I'd help You; You know I would; and oh, do help me." 
And He did. 

Pictures. — Clirist the Bread of Life. — Plockhorst. Christ the Con- 
soler. — Ary Scheffer, Plockhorst. Healing the Sick. — C. Schonherr; 
Benj. West. 



He Saith unto Philip. — By combining all the accounts the conver- 
sation at this time would be about as follows: 

Jesus (speaking to Philip, whose home was at Bethsaida, and who 
therefore was acquainted with the region and the people), — " WJience 
shall ice buy bread, that these may eat ? " (John). 

Philip. — " Two hundred pennyworth ($34 worth) of bread is not suffi- 
cient for them, that every one of them may take a little'''' (John). 

The Apostles. — " Send the multitude away, that they may go into the 
towns and country round about, and lodge and get victuals " (Luke). 

Jesus. — " Give ye them to eat " (Luke). 

The Apostles. — "Shall we go and buy two hundred penny worth of 
bread, and give them to eat?" (Mark). 

Jesus. — " How many loaves have ye? Go and see" (Mark). 



6. This He Said to Prove Him. — impdtwv, tempting, the same word 
that is used of the temptations of Jesus. God tries and proves men, 
putting them to the test to prove whether they are worthy, and by that 
act to help make them more worthy; while Satan tempts men, that is, puts 
them to the test with the desire and endeavor to influence them to evil. 



Proving is intended to have a double result: (1) to show what one is, 
and (2) by this process of testing, to strengthen the good. Philip was 
tested, both to prove his faith, his insight, his wisdom, the results of his 
training, like a school examination, and also to increase these qualities. 



Life an Education Because a Probation. — Life is both a probation 
and an education; a probation through the process of education, and an 
education through the probation. 



VI:8,9 



ST. JOHN 



175 



1. The trials of life are to prove what we are, to see 
if we are fitted for larger things. We are tested in 
the use of the ten talents to prove whether we are 
fitted to rule the ten cities. The rope is tested by a 
weight, not to break it, but to see if it is fitted to hold 
up more precious things. The ship is tested, not to 
destroy it, but to see if it is strong enough to carry 
costly freight and precious lives through the storm. 

2. The meaning of trial is not only to test worthiness 
but to increase it, as the oak tree is not only tested by 
the storms, but toughened by them. "The fire doth 
not only discover which is true gold, but makes the 
true gold more pure." — Gurnall. 



" The good are better made by ill, 
As odors crushed are sweeter still." 

" But noble souls through dust and heat 
Rise from disaster and defeat 

The stronger." — Longfellow. 



Rogers. 



A. D. 29. 

April. 

Just be/ore the 

Passover \ 

which was 

April 16-24. 

THIRD YEAR 

DURING THE 

GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

PLAIN OF 
BUTAIHA 

BELONGING 
TO 

BETHSAIDA 

JOHN BAPTIST 

BEHEADED IN 

MARCH, A. D. 29, 

JUST BEFORE 

THIS MIRACLE. 

JESUS BETWEEN 

32 AND 33 YEARS 

OLD. 

Feeding 

the Five 

Thousand. 



Note that it is a sign of God's favor to have trials. "If ye endure 
chastening God dealeth with you as with sons" (Heb. 12:7). It is 
because God sees something in us worth proving, some good material 
that can be made better, some hidden possibilities, that he puts us to 
the test. 



9. A Lad With Five Barley Loaves. 
ests of the kingdom of God. Thus: 



The young can serve the inter- 



" What time the Saviour spreads his feast, 
For thousands on the mountain side, 
One of the last, the least, 
The abundant store supplied. " 

— Lyra Innocentium. 

Compare the little maiden who told Naaman of the prophet who 
could heal him. 



Great Blessings Through Common Persons —For the insignificant, 
the commonplace who make up the greater portion of mankind, there 
is either no gospel or it is Christ's. 1. For the world of wealth, power, 
brute violence, sceptical intellect is inflated with its own self-importance. 
The conceitedly clever will revel in his power to wound the inferior 
capacity. "This multitude that knoweth not the law is accursed," says 



176 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 8, 9 

religious pride. ■' These persons are not in society," says a fashionable 
pride. " Mankind is composed of 1,000,000,000 persons, mostly fools," 
says intellectual pride. See how Christ in His every word and action 
set His face against all this. He instantly made use of the poor lad's 
barley loaves and fishes. His symbols of the kingdom were a little 
leaven, a handful of loaves and a grain of mustard seed; the widow^'s 
mites receive His commendation. 



A Little Multiplied by God Becomes Great. — " Most of us 
have only one talent, but he who has one talent sometimes makes 
ten of it. We have only five barley loaves, etc., which indeed 
in themselves are useless, but when given to Christ He can make 
them enough to feed five thousand. Take the one instance of kind 
words of sympathy and encouragement. 

" When Count Zinzendorf was a boy at school, he founded amongst 
his schoolfellows a little guild which he called the ' Order of the Grain 
of Mustard Seed,' and thereafter that seedling grew into the great tree 
of the Moravian Brotherhood, whose boughs were a blessing to the 
world. The widow's mite ! When they laughed at Saint Theresa, when 
she wanted to build a great orphanage and had but three shillings 
to begin with, she answered, ' With three shillings Theresa can go 
nothing ; but with God and her three shillings there is nothing 
which Theresa cannot do.' Do not let us imagine, then, that 
we are too poor, or too stupid, or too ignorant, or too obscure to do any 
real good in the world wherein God has placed us. 

" If you bring no gift how can God use it? The lad must bring his 
barley loaves to Christ before the five thousand can be fed. Have you 
ever attempted to do as he did? Have you, even in the smallest 
measure, or with the least earnest desire, tried to follow John Wesley's 
golden advice : ' Do all the good you can, by all means you can, in all 
the ways you can, to all the persons you can, in all the places you can, 
as long as ever you can ? " — Farrar. 



Examples —Howard, Carey. — Has there been a nobler work of mercy 
in modern days than the purification of prisons? Yet that was done by 
one whom a great modern writer sneeringly patronized as the " dull, 
good man John Howard." Is there a grander, nobler enterprise than 
missions? The mission of England to India was started by a humble, 
itinerant shoemaker, William Carey. These men brought to Christ 
their humble efforts, their barley loaves, and in His hand, and under 
His blessing, they multiplied exceedingly. " We can never hope," you 
say, "to lead to such vast results." So they thought. 

Library. —Browning's The Boy and the Angel., 



VI: io, II 



ST. JOHN 



177 



10. And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was 
much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number 
about five thousand. 

11. And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given 
thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to 
them that were set down ; and likewise of the fishes as much 
as they would. 

Christ's Way of Blessing. — 

" Oh, not in strange portentous way 

Christs miracles were wrought of old 
The common thing, the common clay, 
He touched and tinctured, and straightway 
It grew to glory manifold. 

The barley loaves were daily bread, 

Kneaded and mixed with usual skill ; 
No care was given, no spell was said, 
But when the Lord had blessed, they fed 
The multitude upon the hill." — 

TJie Outlook. 



A. D. 29. 

April. 

/test before the 

Passover^ 

which was 

April 16-24. 

THIRD YEAR 

DURING THE 

GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

PLAIN OF 
BUTAIHA 

BELONGING 
TO 

BETHSAIDA. 

JOHN, BAPTIST, 

BEHEADED IN 

MARCH, A. D. 2Q, 

JUST BEFORE 

THIS MIRACLE. 

JESUS BETWEEN 

32 AND 33 YEARS 

OLD. 

Feeding 

the Five 

Thousand. 



10. So the Men Sat Down. — Either the companies consisted some of 
one hundred, and others of fifty, each arranged on three sides of a 
square, according to Roman custom ; or they were arranged in fifty 
triclini'i, or three sides of a parallelogram, each consisting of a hundred 
men. With their bright-colored Oriental dresses (gay red, blue, and 
yellow, which the poorest wear), these men presented an appearance 
which recalled a brilliant garden in the early summer, with numerous 
flower beds. 

" And when He had given thanks, ' looking up to heaven'" (Luke). 
Thus recognizing the Giver of all good. 



" 'Twas seedtime when he blessed the bread, 
'Twas harvest when he brake." 

On an old teapot tb^fc belonged to the Wesleys is found the following 
grace, by John Cennick : — 

" Be present at our table, Lord ; 
Be here and every where adored ; 
These mercies bless and grant that we 
May feast in paradise with thee." 
12 



178 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 10, 1 1 

" We th2Jik thee, Lord, for this our food, 
But more because of Jesus' blood ; 
Let manna to our souls be given, 
The bread of life send down from heaven." 



He Distributed to His Disciples, and His Disciples to Them that 
Were Set Down. — Jesus conferred great honor on the disciples in 
making them the instruments of conferring his bounty. So let teachers, 
pastors, parents, not do all things themselves, but use scholars and 
children, whenever it is possible, in the works of mercy. 

Our duties and our privileges are not measured by what we can do of 
ourselves, but by what God is willing to do through us. We cannot turn 
the machinery of the factory, but we can let the water on to the wheel. 
We cannot push the steamship across the ocean, but we can let on the 
steam for the engine to do it. 



The Disciples Co-working with Jesus. — Jesus could have rained 
down manna, so that each person could have picked up enough just 
before him to supply all his needs. But he chose to work in such a way 
that there must be co-operation on the part of his disciples before the 
multitude could be fed. In using human instrumentalities to supply 
human need, the Master most beautifully exemplified the way of pro- 
pagating his truth. 

Gain by Giving. — "Christ's provision is more than enough for a 
hungry world, and they who share it out among their fellows have their 
own possession of it increased. There is no surer way to receive the 
full sweetness and blessing of the Gospel than to carry it to some 
hungry soul. " — Maclaren. 

Churches thrive in their spiritual life when they most distribute to 
others the gospel God has given to them. A church once being in debt, 
voted to turn all its contributions into that channel till the 
debt was paid. But the contributions grew smaller and the How 
debt did not. Afterwards, they gave to all objects of Churches 
benevolence, and they prospered themselves financially. Thrive. 

A missionary church doing most and giving most for 
the heathen is most prosperous at home in all spiritual usefulness. In- 
dividuals will find the same rule holding true. They gain spiritual life 
by imparting it. They gain clearer views of truth by teaching others. 
They grow richer in all that is best in life by giving freely of the money 
God gives them. 



VI:io, ii 



ST. JOHN 



179 



This is especially true of teachers. Mr. B. F. Jacobs 

says that "God has skimmed the church and put the 

cream into the Sabbath school." It seems 

Teachers, to me that even more than this, teaching 
in the Sabbath school changes the skim 
milk into cream. 

" The fountain that gives what it receives is fresh 
and clear and beautiful. The bog that receives and 
does not give is malarious, foul, reptile-haunted. This 
miracle was a symbol of that love which exhausts not 
itself by loving, but after all its outgoings upon 
others, abides itself far richer than it would have done 
but for the multiplying which there ever is in a true 
dispensing." — Trench. 

A city grows rich by receiving and giving forth. It 
is a focus of commerce, A desert neither receives nor 
gives, and it always remains barren and poor. Every 
heart that receives and gives forth grows rich in 
holiness and love and everything that belongs to its 
commerce. 



A. D. 29. 

April. 

Just before ihe 

Passover^ 

which was 

Arfiil 16-24. 

THIRD YEAR 

DURING THE 

GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

PLAIN OF 
BUTAIHA 

BELONGING 
TO 

BETHSAIDA. 

JOHN, BAPTIST, 

BEHEADED IN 

MARCH, A. D. 29, 

JUST BEFORE 

THIS MIRACLE. 

JESUS BETWEEN 

32 AND 33 YEARS 

OLD. 

Feedittg 
the Five 

Thousand. 



Library. — The Poem of the "Two Sacks of Wheat." One man 
kept his until it rotted away. The other sowed his broadcast and reaped 
a harvest. 



Compare. — The widow's cruse of oil and barrel of meal (1 Kings 17 : 
9-16). 

" As the widow's oil increased, not in the vessel, but by pouring out ; 
as here the barley bread multiplied, not in the whole loaf but by break- 
ing and distributing ; and as the grain bringeth increase, not when it 
lieth on a heap in the garner, but when scattered upon the land, so 
spiritual graces are best improved, not by keeping them together, but 
by distributing them abroad." — Saunderson. 



The Unfailing Cruse. — 

" Is thy cruse of comfort failing ? 
Rise aud share it with another, 
And through all the years of famine 
It shall serve thee and thy brother. 
Love divine will fill thy storehouse 

Or thy handful still renew ; 

Scanty fare for one will, often, 

Make a royal feast for two. 



180 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI: 10, II 

" For the heart grows rich in giving ; 

All its wealth is living grain ; 
Seeds which mildew in the garner, 

Scattered, fill with gold the plain. 
Is thy burden hard and heavy ? 

Do thy steps drag wearily ? 
Help to bear thy brother's burden : 

God will bear both it and thee. 

" Is the heart a well left empty ? 

None but God its void can fill ; 
Nothing but a ceaseless fountain 

Can its ceaseless longing still. 
Is the heart a living power ? 

Self -entwined, its strength sinks low. 
It can only live in loving, 

And by serving, love will grow." — Mrs. Charles. 



Exporting Religion. — " When the Massachusetts legislature were 
discussing the propriety of granting an act of incorporation to a mis- 
sionary society, one of the members remarked that it seemed to be an 
arrangement for exporting religion, when in fact we had none to spare. 
He was answered that religion was a commodity of which the more we 
exported the more we had left. The man who strives to shut up fire in 
order to preserve it will soon find he has nothing left but ashes. We 
get the best fire by throwing it open that others may share its warmth. 
We get the purest water for ourselves by allowing it to flow on and 
bless others." — Rev. H. L. Hastings, D. D. 



The Arithmetic of God. — ' ' This is the arithmetic of the kingdom. 
Earthly arithmetic says, ' Give and want.' Heavenly arithmetic says, 
' Give and grow rich.' " — Sehauffler. 

(1.) " He multiplied by division, ' distributed.' (2.) He added by sub- 
traction, ' filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley 
loaves.'" — W. II. Van Dor en, D. D. 

<; The story of this miracle presents us the contrast between the arith- 
metic of man and the arithmetic of God. To human sight it was thus : 
One person, a lad, a slave ; five cakes ; small cakes, barley cakes, plus 
two fishes, very small fishes — 5,000 men — women — children — and 
children, ravenous little eaters ! Loaves is a misleading word to West, 
ern ears. It implies something large, whereas the loaf spoken of in the 
narrative was about the size of our ordinary griddle-cake or buckwheat 



VI : io, II 



ST. JOHN 



181 



cake. Divide one of those into a thousand equal parts, 
and see if one of those parts is worth even a starving 
man's effort to put it in his mouth. But God's arith- 
metic is not ours. With him one shall chase a 
thousand and two shall put ten thousand to flight." — 
Dr. Deems. 

The hope of the world's salvation is in the wonderful 
power of God in multiplying the littles ; the numbers, 
the wealth, the power of Christians are enough for 
the salvation of the world, if they will distribute 
what God gives them, and if His blessing goes with it. 

The reason is that in the Divine arithmetic God 
himself is the multiplier. This may be illustrated by 
what man is doing. Coal multiplied by man's skill is 
infinitely multiplied into force, warmth, lights, electric 
cars. Iron multiplied by man becomes steam engines, 
railroads, steam ships, cannon, needles, watch-springs 
and a thousand other things. And so of many other 
things. 

Two men representing an important institution 
were once in great straits for their cause, when one said to the other, 
"I am 0, you are 0, but Christ is 1; and that makes 100. With Christ 
behind us we must succeed." 



A. B. 29. 

April. 

Just be/ore the 

Passover, 

•which was 

April 16-24. 

THIRD YEAR 

DURING THE 

GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

PLAIN OF 
BUTAIHA 

BELONGING 
TO 

BETHSAIDA. 

JOHN, BAPTIST, 

BEHEADED IN 

MARCH, A. D. 2g, 

JUST BEFORE 

THIS MIRACLE. 

JESUS BETWEEN 

32 AND 33 YEARS 

OLD. 

Feeding 
tlie Five 

Thousand. 



Training by Work. — President Elliot of Harvard University, in a 
late lecture at Brooklyn, recognized daily labor as an important and 
wholesome part of education, and advocates manual training in schools 
for those who cannot otherwise obtain the accuracy, patience, fore- 
thought and good judgment developed by accurate hand-work. The 
principal of a large city school told me that the manual training was an 
aid in the intellectual studies of the pupils. So Jesus in this miracle 
set His disciples to work as a part of their training. Religious hand- 
work is an aid to spiritual attainments. 



As Much as They Would. — Illustrated by God's multiplication in 
nature, — a few plants can by their seeds multiply wonderfully. One 
ear of corn, if every kernel were planted and grew, could in ten years 
cover the whole earth with corn. 



Peculiarity of This Miracle. — In turning water into wine changes 
of months were compressed into moments. But grain, by no natural 



1 82 SUCGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI: 10, II 

process can unfold itself into bread. We can conceive of an acorn, by 
degrees, unfolding itself into an oak. But an acorn cannot unfold itself 
into a carved column of oak. — Van Doren. 



Old Testament Examples. — Elijah fed by ravens (1 Kings 17: 6); 
miraculously increases the widow's meal and oil(l Kings 17: 9-16); Elisha 
feeds one hundred men. with twenty loaves (2 Kings 4: 42-44). The 
manna (Ex. 16: 14-35). 



An Eastern Fable. — * ' There is an eastern fable of a boy having 
challenged his teacher to prove to him the existence of God by working 
a miracle, The teacher, who was a priest, got a large vessel filled with 
earth, wherein he deposited a kernel in the boy's presence, and bade him 
pay attention. In the place where the kernel was put a green shoot 
suddenly appeared, the shoot became a stem, the stem put forth leaves 
and branches, which soon spread over the whole apartment. It then 
budded with blossoms, which, dropping off, left golden fruits in their 
place, and in the short space of one hour there stood a noble tree in the 
place of the little seed. The youth, overcome with amazement, 
exclaimed, 'Now I know that there is a God, for I have seen His 
power!' The priest smiled at him, and said, 'Simple child, do you 
only now believe ? Does not what you have just beheld take place year 
after year, only by a slower process ? But is it the less marvelous on 
that account ? ' " — Krummacher. 



A Symbol. — "This miracle is a symbol of the inexhaustible love of 
Christ Himself ; a symbol of that miraculous multiplying of sacred 
influences which, from one brief life of three active years, and one body 
pierced and broken on the tree, feeds innumerable thousands ; a love 
which Christ imparts to His disciples, and which they in turn convey 
throughout the ages and to all lands." — Abbott. 



The Figure op Eating has many lessons for us, such as the need of 
a spiritual appetite ; how a healthy digestion causes the food to yield up 
all that it contains of nourishment ; the need to use by right activity 
the food we eat. 

" The figure of eating reminds us that the acceptance of Christ is an 
act which each man must do for himself. No other man can eat for me. 

" It also reminds us that as the food we eat is distributed, without our 
own will or supervision, to every part of the body, giving light to the 
eye and strength to the arm, making bone or skin in one place, nerve or 



VI: 12 



ST. JOHN 



183 



12. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather 
up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. 

blood-vessel in another, so, if only we make Cnrist 
our own, the life that is in Him suffices for all the 
requirements of human nature and human duty." — 
Prof. Marcus Dods. 



A. D. 29. 

April. 

Just before the 

Passover, 

which was 

April 16-24. 

THIRD YEAR 

DURING THE 

GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

PLAIN OF 
BUTAIHA 

BELONGING 
TO 

BETHSAIDA. 



JOHN, BAPTIST, 

BEHEADED IN 

MARCH, A. D. 29, 

JUST BEFORE 

THIS MIRACLE. 

JESUS BETWEEN 

32 AND 33 YEARS 

OLD. 

Feeding 

the Five 

Thousand. 



Gather Up the Fragments, that Nothing be 
Lost. — Let nothing be wasted or lost in God's work. 
Using well or wasting the fragments of time, of op- 
portunity, the nooks and corners of life, makes all the 
difference between success and failure. 

There was once an apprentice to an 

Window artist in stained-glass windows, who used 

from the odd hours of his time and the waste 

Fragments, pieces of glass to make a window, and the 

result was more beautiful than any his 

master had made, and it was placed in a church. 

In the United States mint at Philadelphia I was told that the 
putting of a grated floor upon the room where certain 
parts of the work was done, brought a saving of $80,000 in Saving Gold 
a year from the little specks of gold that floated off during in the 
the working of the metal. They fell upon the floor, were Mint, 
swept up, washed out, and remelted. 

" There is no waster in the universe like a sinner." He wastes infinite 
opportunities, infinite love, infinite blessings, a soul of infinite worth. 



Science Says, "Gather Up the Fragments." — Many of the most 
useful things are now made out of what was once thrown away. The 
former refuse in making kerosene oil is now worth more than the oil. 
The waste of logs is made into paper, and so of many things. 

'* One of the glories of science is to abolish the word ' waste.' Even 
the rag-picker has his function to perform, a higher one perhaps than 
yours. It is better to gather rags than to wear overmuch finery, 
because those rags go to tiie mill and become paper, on which the lovely 
and heroic deeds of men are inscribed. When death comes he will 
make mock of your fine clothes, and you will go your way to the rag 
heap. He who rescues rags is often more useful than he who wears 
them, and he might have written across him 'Gather up the fragments.' 
etc. He gathers rags, bones, etc. He sorts them. Then they are sold 
and made into new materials, which in their turn come round again to 



184 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI: 12 

rags. I take up a sheet of paper upon which to write, and I say of it, 
' Rags of niy youth come back again — come to clothe my soul this 
time.' " — Georye Dawson, M. A. 

"The distinguishing characteristic of our arts and manufactures is 
economy. Substances which our forefathers threw away are now con- 
verted into useful and valuable products. We extract 
beautiful colors from the dung-heap, and delicious perfumes Value of 
and essences from the offal of the streets. Every day we Waste, 
are finding out more and more that nothing is useless ; that 
even the waste and refuse of our manufactures may be turned to profit- 
able account, and made to minister to the necessities or the comfort of 
man. By the work of our own hands, therefore, our Lord is teaching 
us the lesson of economy."— H. Macmillan, LL. D. 

" Ekegren, a celebrated watchmaker in Geneva, told me that the 
chamois skin he used in polishing and packing gold did not become 
worthless by use, but when he had worn it out, it was so filled with 
particles of gold that he could sell it for much more than it cost him." 
— Rev. Calvin Cutler. 



All Out of an Ash Barrel. — "You'll be surprised to know what 
comes out of that dreadful-looking place. Let me tell you a few of the 
things the picker finds, and you'll see that the fairies of the story books 
never performed any greater marvels than every day come from the 
hands of common workmen. Beautiful cloth worth several dollars a 
yard comes out of the ash barrel, the most exquisite of papers, balls and 
buttons of ivory, the daintiest of toilet soap, and the nicest of jelly, the 
phosphorus that we want for our matches, coal to burn, and furs to 
keep us warm, solder, boneblack, and leather, and — dear me ! I couldn't 
tell you in an hour all the strange things the ashman carries off in that 
dismal-looking bag of his. " 

In fact, there is not one thing that goes into the ash barrel but goes 
through changes so wonderful that we are glad to pay a great price to 
get it back into the house in its new shape. — Olive Thome Miller. 



Col. Waring, who has made such a revolution in the street-cleaning 
department of New York, says that by proper sorting there could be 
profit enough made out of the refuse of the city to pay the whole expense 
of the department, five or six millions of dollars. 



Nature Says, Gather Up the Fragments.— " Though the wealth of 
God is uncountable, He takes care even of His pence. There is no waste 



VI: 12 



ST. TOHN 



185 



A. ». 29. 

April. 

Just before the 

Passover, 

which zvas 

April 16-24. 

THIRD YEAR 

DURING THE 

GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

PLAIN OF 
BUTAIHA 

BELONGING 
TO 

BETHSAIDA. 

JOHN, BAPTIST, 

BEHEADED IN 

MARCH, A. D. 29, 

JUST BEFORE 

THIS MIRACLE. 

JESUS BETWEEN 

32 AND 33 YEARS 

OLD. 

Feeding 

the Five 

Thousand. 



in His workshop. All things go towards the upbuild- 
ing of some newer life. Whatsoever you behold is 
but part of the great wheel of life everywhere return- 
ing. The cloud becomes the rain, the rain the river, 
the river the sea, the sea the cloud again." 

Nature is a rigid economist. In her household there 
is no waste. Everything is utilized to the utmost. 
The decay of rocks forms the soil of plants; and the 
decay of plants forms the mould in which future 
plants will grow. The sunlight and carbonic acid gas 
of past ages, which seemed to be wasted upon a desert 
world, have been stored up in the form of coal for the 
benefit of man. The water that seems to be dissi- 
pated in the air descends in the dew and rain to refresh 
and quicken the earth. The matter that has served its 
purpose to one object goes by death and decomposi- 
tion to form another object with a different purpose 
to serve. The materials which the animal kingdom 
receives from the mineral and .vegetable kingdoms 
must be restored in order that they may be carefully 
circulated without diminution or waste over the whole 
earth. The gases that disappear in one form reappear in another. 
Forces are changed into their equivalents. Heat becomes motion, and 
motion heat. Nowhere is there any waste. In the ashes of every fire, 
in the decay of every plant, in the death and decomposition of every 
animal there is change, but not loss; death, but not waste. Everything 
is made the most of. The fragments of every product of nature are 
gathered up carefully and made to serve a useful purpose in a new 
form at Nature's feast. Amid all her lavishness Nature is very saving. 
The brilliant hues of flowers which the poet and artist love are not the 
mere idle adornments, but have a practical purpose to fulfill. The 
beauty and fragrance which we so much admire appear only when the 
fertilization of the plant by insect agency is necessary; and when this 
task is accomplished, she withdraws them, as we put out the lights and 
remove the garlands when the banquet is over." — H. Macmillan, LL. D. 



" We pour out, all animals pour out, by their breath, a refuse of the 
body, a noxious refuse, carbonic acid gas. But Nature uses it up. 
Plants breathe in by their leaves the gas which we breathe out by 
our lungs; and it is the refuse you give to plants which makes wood. 
— Rev. W. W. Peyton. 



Character is Built Up of Fragments. — " A good character is 
often compared in the Bible to gold, but the golden coin is composed of 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI:I3~I7 



13. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the 
fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them 
that had eaten. 

14. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is 
of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world. 

15. TI When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by 
force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone. 

16. Aud when even was now come, his disciples went down unto the sea. 

17. And entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it 
was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them. 

almost infinitely small fragments." A watch case manufactory which 
for 19 years had occupied the same building in New York city, moved 
recently into new quarters. It was the custom of the firm to save 
every bit of dust, and all of the sweepings of the three floors they occu- 
pied, and extract the bits of gold lost in the rubbish. Although this 
process was expensive, it paid very well. When the manufactory was 
moved, the firm took up all the boards on the three floors, in order to save 
the gold dust. The boards were reduced to ashes, and the gold was 
extracted therefrom by a chemical process. Several thousand dollars' 
worth of gold was found ($67,000 said the Congregationalist). 



" Two or three years ago a treasure train brought several million dollars 
in gold from San Francisco to New York. When the money was counted 
it was found to be all right so far as the number of the coins went, but 
in that journey the rubbing together of the coins caused the loss of 
$2,000. In this case it was a total loss, for the particles were so very 
fine that they could never be recovered." 

"Let us learn the lesson. Our characters are being formed by the 
additions of small particles of spiritual gold day by day. Single deeds 
of self-denial, momentary acts of sympathy and mercy; secret struggles 
against temptation. Unknown battles, hours of sweet communion with 
the Master, burdens carried, trials endured — these are the kind of frag- 
ments out of which a noble character is fashioned into strength and 
beauty. Let us gather up all such fragments that nothing be lost."— 
Louis Albert Banks, D. D. in The Christ Dream. 



15, 17. — Himself Alone. — Jesus retired to spend the night in 
prayer, and left the disciples to make their own way home to Caper- 
naum. But from that mountain He could watch their course. 
(Mk. 6 : 48.) 



VI:i8-2i 



ST. JOHN 



l8 7 



18. And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew. 

19. So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty 
furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh 
unto the ship: and they were afraid. 

20. But he saith unto them, It is I; be not afraid. 

21. Then they willingly received him into the ship: and im- 
mediately the ship was at the land whither they went. 



On the way they were overtaken by one of the 
sudden, violent storms from the north, so common on 
the Sea of Galilee. The danger was great, and the 
tempest drove them away from their harbor. 

The reason for this experience probably was to train 
them in faith, hope and courage, " He will not have 
them to be clinging only to the sense of His bodily 
presence, — as ivy, needing always an outward sup- 
port. — but as hardy forest trees which can brave a 
blast ; and this time He puts them forth into the 
danger alone, even as some loving motherbird thrusts 
her fledglings from the nest, that they may find their T 
own wings and learn to use them. And by the issue He will awaken in 
them a confidence in His ever-ready help." — Trench. 



A. D. 39. 

April. 

Just before the 

Passover^ 

which was 

April 16-24. 

THIRD YEAR 

DURING THE 

GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

PLAIN OF 
BUTAIHA 

BELONGING 
TO 

BETHSAIDA. 

JOHN, BAPTIST, 

BEHEADED IN 

MARCH, A. D. 29, 

JUST BEFORE 

THIS MIRACLE. 

JESUS BETWEEN 

32 AND 33 YEARS 

OLD. 

Feeding 

the Five 

Thousand. 



The Voyage of Life. — In each of the series of pictures, " The Voy- 
age of Life,'' by Cole, there is a guardian angel ; but in the picture of 
"Manhood" this guardian is unseen by the man on the rough tide. 
Christ is with us, although we do not always see Him. He seems 
asleep or hidden, but the angels can see that He is ever with us to guide 
and guard. 

18. A Great Wind That Blew.— 

' ' Ridge of the mountain wave, lower thy crest ! 
Wail of Euroclydon, be thou at rest ! 
Sorrow can never be, darkness must fly, 
Where saith the Light of light, Peace ! it is I ! " 

Reference. —See under iii : 16, " The Weathercock." 



19. So When They Had Rowed.— " Is it not the history of the church 
in a nutshell ? Is it not the symbol of life for us all ? The solemn law 
under which we live demands persistent effort, and imposes continual 
antagonism upon us ; there is no reason why, we should regard that as 
evil, or think ourselves hardly used, because we are not fair-weather 



1 88 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 1 8-2 1 

sailors. The end of life is to make men ; the meaning of all events is 
to mold character. Anything that makes me stronger is a blessing, 
anything that develops my morale is the highest good that can come to 
me. And so be thankful if, when the boat is crossing the mouth of 
some glen that opens upon the lake, a sudden gust smites the sheets and 
sends you to the helm, and takes all your effort to keep you from sink- 
ing. Do not murmur or think that God's Providence is strange, because 
many and many a time when ' it is dark, and Jesus is not yet come to 
us,' the storm of wind comes down upon the lake and threatens to 
drive us from our course. Let us rather recognize Him as the Lord, 
who in love and kindness, sends all the different kinds of^ weather 
which according to the old proverb, makes up the full summed year. 
The solitary crew were not so solitary as they thought. That little 
dancing speck on the waters which held so much blind love, and so 
much fear and trouble, was in His sight as on the calm mountain top 
He communed with God. No wonder that weary hearts and lonely 
ones, groping amidst the darkness and fighting with the tempests and 
the sorrows of life, have ever found in our story a symbol that comes 
to them with a prophecy of hope and an assurance of help, and have 
rejoiced to know that they on the sea are beheld of the Christ in the 
sky, and that 'the darkness hideth not from' His loving eye." — 
Maclaren. 

Pictures. — Jesus Walking on the Sea, Giotto, C. R. Leslie. Lord 
Save or We Perish, Plockhorst, Dore, Sanders. Christ and St. Peter, A. 
Schwartz. 



20. It is I, Be Not Afraid. — 

So I go on not knowing. I would not if I might ; 

I would rather walk in the dark with God than go alone in the light ; 

I would rather walk with Him by faith than walk alone by sight." 



Library. — Mrs. Stowe's hymn, "When Winds are Raging o'er the 
Upper Ocean." Tennyson's " Crossing the Bar." 

" I know not where His islands lift 
Their fronded palms in air, 
I only know I cannot drift 
Beyond His love and care." — Whittier. 



This Miracle as a Type.— We see here a type of the Christian, 
amid the storms of sorrow and temptation, doubts and perplexities and 



VI : 22-27 



ST. JOHN 



189 



22. T[ The day following, when the people, which stood on 
the other side of the sea, saw that there was none other boat 
there, save that one whereinto his disciples were entered, and 
that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, but that 
his disciples were gone away alone ; 

23. (Howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias nigh unto 
the place where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had 
given thanks :) 

24. When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, 
neither his disciples, they also took shipping, and came to 
Capernaum, seeking for Jesus. 

25. And when they had found him on the other side of the 
sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when earnest thou hither? 

26. Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto 
you, Ye seek me, not, because ye saw the miracles, but because 
ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. 

27. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that 
meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of 
man shall give unto you : for him hath God the Father sealed. 



A. D. 29. 

April. 

Just before the 

Passover, 

which was 

April 16-24. 

THIRD YEAR 

DURING THE 

GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

PLAIN OF 
BUTAIHA 

BELONGING 
TO 

BETHSAIDA. 

JOHN BAPTIST 

BEHEADED IN 

MARCH, A. D. 29, 

JUST BEFORE 

THIS MIRACLE. 

JESUS BETWEEN 

32 AND 33 YEARS 

OLD. 

Feeding 

tlie Five 

Thousand. 



cares. " Ours is a ship on a voyage, not a ship in a har- 
bor, so that the storms blow over us. It is not the absence of danger, but 
the presence of Christ which reassures us." — McDonald. We see also a 
type of the church of Christ in a restless and sinful world, tossed by- 
tempests of persecution and opposition, assailed by storms of false doc- 
trines ; of science, falsely so called, of worldliness and temptation. But 
the eye of the Saviour rests upon it. He comes and says, " Be of good 
cheer ; it is I ; be not afraid." He conquers the storm, and bids the sea 
be still. A vessel in the sea is safe so long as the sea is not in the 
vessel. The church is safe in the world so long as the world is not in 
the church. The church with the divine Saviour, the Christ, in it, is 
always safe. 

Library. — Longfellow's " Building of the Ship," " Thou, too, sail on 
oh ship of State ! " See Suggestive Illustrations on Matthew, viii: 23-26; 
and xiv: 22-33. 



27. Labor Not for the Meat that Perisheth. — " The old Grecians 
that had fed altogether on acorns before, after that bread came in 
amongst them they made no reckoning of their mast any more, but kept 
it only for swine. And leathern and iron money began to grow out of 
request amongst the Lacedaemonians after that gold and silver came into 
use. So when a man hath once found the favor of God in his heart, and 
the love of God in Christ hath once lighted on it, and got assurance of 
it, he ceaseth then to be greedy of the world's trastu which is in regard 



igO SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 22-27 

of it but dross or pebble stones to gold and diamonds, as mast to the 
best bread corn ; yea, rather of far less worth or value to that than 
either of these are to it." — Thomas Fuller. 



w The Child or His Clothes — Mr. Flavel, in the preface to his 
Treatise on the Soul of Man, speaking of his inattention to his spiritual 
interests, says, "I studied to know many other things, but I knew not 
myself. It was with me, as with a servant to whom the master com- 
mitted two things — the child and the child's clothes : the servant is 
very careful of the clothes ; brushes and washes, starches and irons 
them, and keeps them safe and clean ; but the child is forgotten and 
lost. My body, which is but the garment of my soul, I kept and 
nourished with excessive care ; but my soul was long forgotten, and 
had been lost for ever, as others daily are, had not God roused it, by the 
convictions of His Spirit, out of that deep oblivion and deadly slumber." 



Compare Isaiah 55: 1-3, and Solomon's experience in Ecclesiastes, 
chap. 2. 

The Visitor from Venus. — " Jane Taylor, in one of her moral fables, 
gives an account of the arrival and sojourn on this earth of a former 
inhabitant of the planet Venus. He was one of a race like ours, 
apparently in all respects human, except that he had never heard of 
death. No hint of it came to him until after he had resided several 
weeks in this world, and had in the meantime been introduced to all the 
gayeties of society and instructed in the best means of making money ; 
and his emotions at the discovery that all men must die, and the amaze- 
ment that overcame him at the worldliness of creatures with such a 
destiny, and their indifference to the future, are vividly portrayed in the 
story. One can better see by the way it strikes a stranger how appalling 
is this earthly insensibility and lack of preparation for death. But 
imagine the carelessness of human beings living (other things being the 
same) in a land where there is no death to prepare for ! " — Rev. Theron 
Brown. 

Library. — Bulwer's Lost Tales of Miletus, the poem "Death and 
Sisyphus ; " and the legend of a man who found a deathless country, in 
Madame Kremnit's Roumanian Folk-tales. 

The Bread of Life. — " Every living thing, whatever it may be, 
whether lowest in the scale of existence, or highest, must have food 
appropriate to itself, or it cannot live. There is a pathetic story which 
comes to us from the earlier explorations of the vast island of Australia, 
hi the central deserts of that island there grows a strange plant called 



VI : 22-27 



ST. JOHN 



I 9 I 



A. D. 29. 

April. 

Just before the 

Passover, 

which was 

April 16-24. 

THIRD YEAR 

DURING THE 

GREAT 

GALILEA.N 

MINISTRY. 

PLAIN OF 
BUTAIHA 

BELONGING 
TO 

BETHSAIDA. 

JOHN, BAPTIST, 

BEHEADED IN 

MARCH, A. D. 29, 

JUST BEFORE 

THIS MIRACLE. 

JESUS BETWEEN 

32 AND 33 YEARS 

OLD. 

Feeding 

the Five 

Tli ou sand. 



the nardoo. bearing leaves like clover. The English- »fr 
men Burk and Wells, who were making these explora- 
tions, in the failure of other food, followed the 
example of the natives, and began to eat the leaves 
and roots of this plant named nardoo. It seemed to 
satisfy them ; it seemed to fill them with a pleasant 
sense of comfort and repletion. But they grew 
weaker every day, and more emaciated ; they were 
not hungry, for the plant seemed to satisfy the calling 
of hunger. But all the effects of an unfilled hunger 
began to appear in them ; their flesh wasted from their 
bones, their strength leaked till they scarcely had the 
energy of an infant ; they could not crawl on in their 
journey more than a mile or two a day. At last one 
of them perished of starvation ; the other was rescued 
in the last extremity of it. On analysis, it was 
discovered that the bread made of this plant lacked an 
element essential to the sustenance of a European. 
And so, even though they seemed fed, the explorers 
wasted away, and one of them died, because they 
were feeding on a sustenance inappropriate. Now all this is true of 
man's higher and moral nature. The mistake men are constantly mak- 
ing is, that they seek to feed their higher nature upon wrong food, 
which may satisfy for the time, but in the long run cannot keep back 
the pangs of a noble spiritual hunger. Learn the essential meaning of 
religion. The essential meaning of my physical life is, that I come into 
contact with food. The essential meaning of my religious life is, that I 
as really and as utterly come into contact with the food of my spiritual 
nature — Christ." — Wayland Hoyt, D, D. 

" A traveler lost his way in an Eastern desert. His provisions were 
exhausted, and he had already wandered about for several days without 
food, when he descried under a palm tree on his track the marks of a 
recent encampment. He approached the spot tremulous with hope. 
He found a bag which the travelers had left behind, filled with some- 
thing that appeared to be dates. He opened it eagerly, expecting to 
satisfy his hunger, when lo ! it contained only pearls ! He sat down 
and wept. What are pearls to a man who is dying for want of bread ?" 
— W. Arnot, D. D. 



Famine Food. — "In that land where mighty famine has been raging 
over the sea, we are told that the wretched peasants make themselves 
bread called hunger-bread, the ingredients of which are weeds, chopped 
cockle or tree bark, and straw. Not infrequently sand is added to help 



I92 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 28-32 



28. Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works 
of God? 

29. Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe 
on him whom he hath sent. 

30. They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, 
and believe thee ? what dost thou work? 

31. Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread 
from heaven to eat. 

32. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you 
not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from 
heaven. 



make sufficient substance, such as it is, for the loaves wherewith the 
starving feed themselves. This food rarely contains a trace of legiti- 
mate breadstuff. 

" How dire must be the hunger which can force such food upon men, 
deadly in its consequences on those who must eat of it or die; for 
when this food is eaten typhus fever follows fast. No earthly power, 
no scientific knowledge, can command that these stones be made bread. 
To eat them is death ; to refrain from eating them is death as certain 
and more swift. There is no escape from the alternative horror, unless, 
indeed, relief come from the outside world, — unless a seeming miracle 
is wrought, and America's wheat, baked into loaves of life, can be 
substituted in the hands of the dying for the nauseous, death- bearing 
hunger-bread. 

" Such a vision of our fellow-men in the blighted regions where nothing 
has grown is almost paralyzing. But it is possible that we have never 
had the spiritual hunger of men, of all men without Christ,, revealed to 
us, even as clearly as by reports and by our own imagination we have 
visioned forth to ourselves the condition of the famine-struck Russian 
peasant. We have not seen that men without God are truly feeding 
on hunger-bread. 

" The spiritual fact is not so readily seen as the physical one; for often- 
times this world's bread has the appearance of food which truly supports 
and nourishes, while in truth it is no more nutritious than its black and 
gritty prototype. 

" Oh, the hidden hunger of the heart that knows not God! At the last 
stages of bodily hunger, if not before, the ghastly truth would come out 
that they were fainting and dying from want. But here again a differ- 
ence appears ; for the grisly fact of soul-hunger may be concealed, not 
only from others, but from the victim himself, so that the siege-army 
of starvation may be totally destroying him, and he be unaware that he 
is dying; or of what he is dying." — Sunday School Times, 



VI : 28-32 



ST. JOHN 



193 



False Food. — " During the Irish famine of 1849 the 
Duke of Norfolk invented a curry-powder of which he 
boasted that if taken by the starving peasants it would 
destroy all cravings of hunger. How many remedies 
for the soul's hunger are mere unsatisfying mockeries ! 
Curry -powder is poor food at the best." — H. O. 
31ackey. 

Him Hath the Father Sealed. — When most 
people could not read, it was necessary to use seals 
and signs. Thus the ancient hotels for names had 
picture-signs, as "The Elephant and Castle," "The 
Boar's Head." For the same reason seals were used, 
instead of written signatures. Thus God authenti- 
cated and indorsed Jesus as His Son, and our Saviour, 
by signs which all can understand. It was like the 
indorsement on the back of a note. 



A.». 29. 

April. 

Just before the 

Passover, 

which was 

April 16-24. 

THIRD YEAR 

DURING THE 

GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY, 

PLAIN OF 
BUTAIHA 

BELONGING 
TO 

BETHSAIDA 

JOHN, BAPTIST, 

BEHEADED IN 

MARCH, A. D. 29, 

JUST BEFORE 

THIS MIRACkE. 

JESUS BETWEEN 

32 AND 33 YEARS 

OLD. 

Feeding 

the Five 

Thousand. 

To seal anything is to attest by some sign or mark 
that it is genuine, that it comes from the person who 
sealed it with his indorsement. The seal to the ancients was like our 
signature. God had borne this witness to Jesus as coming from Him- 
self, with His sanction and indorsement as a Teacher and Saviour. He 
had been thus " sealed " (1) by the direct testimony in the Scriptures; 
(2) by the same in the voice from heaven at His baptism; (3) by indirect 
testimony in His miracles and Messianic work." — Cambridge Bible. 



Oriental Seals. — "With us the seal is of no practical use. It is 
employed still in legal documents as a mere survival of a time when 
the seal meant something, and it has degenerated into a red wafer. 
In the East, the seal is still used by everybody who is above the rank of 
laborer, and for as many purposes as are mentioned in Scripture. 

" The other day, a young man from the city of Mosul — the site of the 
ancient city of Nineveh — who has come to this country to study, 
wished to leave a sum of money in my safe for a little while. I told 
him to put it in an envelope and seal it. He put in the money, stuck 
the envelope together as usual, and then took his seal, with his device 
and name on it, rubbed ink over it a while with his finger till the seal 
was nearly dry, then wet the back of the envelope with his tongue, and. 
pressed the seal down, making an impression in ink over the flap. In 
the Khan al Hillah, a town of ten thousand inhabitants on the Euphra- 
tes, only a few miles from the ancient Babvlon, I saw a room opening, 
13 



194 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 28-32 

as all do, into tbe court, the door of which was fastened with a rude 
wooden lock, and the lock itseif and the whole circumference of the 
door, where it fitted very loosely into the doorway, daubed over with 
masses of clay. All over the clay were impressions of a seal. The 
khanji, or hotel-keeper, told me that the merchant who had occupied 
the room had been absent several months, and had left his goods there, 
protected only by his seal." — W. Hayes Ward, D. D. 

Thus sealed Jesus was proved to belong to God, to be under His pro- 
tection, His peculiar treasure. 



29. That Ye Believe.—" Many will say, ' I can reach the goal with- 
out coming by Christ.' Very well. Do so if you can. The ferry com- 
pany would feel no jealousy of a man who should prefer to swim to 
New York. Let him do so, if he is able, and we will talk about it on 
the other shore ; but probably trying to swim would be the thing that 
would bring him quickest to the boat. Christ has given us the earth 
for our body, but He Himself is the soil in which our souls must root ; 
the eternal help, the source of succor and all supply." — Beecher. 

31. Manna in the Wilderness.— The meaning of this reference to 
Moses giving the manna to the Israelites in their 40 years' wandering in 
the wilderness, is, " Moses proved that he was sent from God by giving 
the people bread from heaven to eat; now what do you do that is greater 
than this to prove that you are the greater prophet, even than the Mes- 
siah ? " They seem to have been thinking over the miracles of the 
loaves, since the day before, when they tried to make Jesus a king on 
that account, and to have questioned whether after all he was as great 
as they at first thought. For (1) Moses, in their thought, gave the manna 
40 years; Jesus had given bread only for one afternoon meal. (2) Moses 
gave it from heaven; Jesus wrought His miracles on earth in the sim- 
plest possible way. (3) Moses fed two millions of people, Jesus only a 
few thousands. (4) "The manna," says Abbott, "was a sweet and 
delicate food; but the bread which Christ had distributed was barley 
bread, the commonest fare of the poorest people." (5) It is quite possi- 
ble that some who ate the bread did not realize the greatness of the 
miracle, so naturally and quietly was it performed. Thus they argued. 



32. The True Bread.— " True" in the sense of the real and perfect, 
r- Cambridge Bible. That which fulfils absolutely, ideally, the highest 
conception of sustaining food. — Westcott. The bread which men most 
need, that is most important to their well-being, that sustains the soul 
to everlasting life. The manna was but a type of this true bread; it was 
for the body, while the true bread was for the soul; it could not be kept 



VI : 33-35 



ST. JOHN 



195 



S3 For the bread of God is he which coraeth down from 
heaven, and giveth life unto the world. 

34. Then they said unto him, Lord, evermore give us this 
bread. 

35. And Jesus said unto them, 1 am the bread of life: he that 
cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me 
shall never thirst. 

but one or two days without corruption, while the 
true bread was everlasting; those who ate the manna 
died, while those who eat of the bread of life live 
forever. 

Thus the manna and the true bread were related, as 
the sky is to heaven, as the body is to the soul; as a 
printed word to the thought it expresses, as fire to the 
Holy Spirit, as a shepherd to Christ. 



A. ». 29. 

April. 

Just be/ore the 

Passover ; 

•which •was 

April 16-24. 

THIRD YEAR 

DURING THE 

GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

PLAIN OF 
BUTAIHA 

BELONGING 
TO 

BETHSAIDA. 

JOHN, BAPTIST, 

BEHEADED IN 

MARCH, A. D. 2J, 

JUST BEFORE 

THIS MIRACLE. 

JESUS BETWEEN 

32 AND 33 YEARS 

OLD. 

Feeding 
the Five 

Thousand. 



' 35. I Am the Bread of Life. — The soul needs food 
as really as the body. Every faculty of the soul needs •!- — — ►}« 

its own food that will strengthen and sustain its 
life, develop its powers, make it grow into the fullness and perfection 
of its nature. Whatever enlarges the soul, builds up its character, 
increases faith, hope, love, knowledge, and all the virtues, makes the 
conscience more tender and true, cultures the will, perfects the judg- 
ment, and enables the soul to work out a pure and holy life, and fits 
it for heaven — whatever does these things is bread of life. 



Divine Food. — The ancient Greeks represented their gods as living 
on ambrosia and nectar, food and drink of divine delicacy and flavor, 
but not to be taken by mortals But our Lord sends from heaven the 
food of the immortals, that all men may partake thereof and live 
forever. 

" A perpetual feast of nectared sweets, 
Where no crude surfeit reigns." 

— Milton. 



Jesus the Bread of Life. — 1. By His death and atonement Jesus 
brings spiritual life to men. He awakens the spiritual faculties and 
senses that were dead to the higher immortal interests. 

2. He nourishes every faculty of the soul, enlarging and strengthen- 
ing them all, so that the soul grows in power, in vision, in activity, in 
knowledge. 



I96 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 33—35 

3. He especially is food to the character, making it to grow more and 
more like His own. 

4. The soul has many hungers, appetites and desires for more an I 
higher things. That soul is dead which does not hunger. The best and 
highest and happiest earthly condition is that winch is full of desires 
and aspirations and longings, called hunger in the Beatitudes Now 
Jesus can give satisfaction to every form of the soul's hunger. For 
instance, (a) The soul hungers for love. Jesus brings a perfect, deep, 
divine love to us, and presents to us the most lovable object on which 
we can set our inexhaustible affections. (6) The soul hungers for for- 
giveness, and Jesus on the cross brings forgiveness and the assurance 
of forgiveness from God. (c) The soul hungers for immortal life, and 
Jesus gives it to us. (d) The soul hungers for God, (e) for heaven, (/) 
for holiness, a perfect living, (g) for larger spheres and broader life, (h) 
for usefulness, (i) for knowledge, (j) for happiness. And every one of 
these and every other conceivable hunger of the soul Jesus satisfies. 
His salvation is as many sided as the nature of man. 

5. The Holy Spirit whom He sends, imparts and sustains life. 

6. He brings the means and motives of eternal life. 

7. He strengthens and inspires all the activities by His personal power 
over our souls. "We have hints of this in the power certain people have 
over us to inspire, awaken and uplift us. Their presence is an atmos- 
phere of health. "We want to live better when we are near them. So 
with Jesus when we draw near to Him in love. I feel 

" His being working in my own, 
The footsteps of His life in mine." 

8. This bread must be received, digested, used in right activities. 
There must be an appetite for it. 

9. We feed on Jesus by trusting Him, by doing His will, by abiding in 
His presence as the lump of clay became perfumed by dwelling with 
the rose, through His Holy Spirit, through His personal power over us. 

Sonnet. — 

" 'Twas August, and the fierce sun overhead 

Smote on the squalid streets of Bethnal Green, 
And the pale weaver, through his windows seen 
In Spitalfields, looked thrice dispirited. 

" I met a preacher there I knew, and said : 

' III and o'erworked, how fare you in this scene?' 
' Bravely ! ' said he ; ' for I of late have been 
Much cheered with thoughts of Christ, the living bread.' 



VI: 33-35 



ST. JOHN 



I 9 7 



" O human soul ! so long as thou canst so 
Set up a mark of everlasting light, 
Above the howling senses' ebb and flow, 

" To cheer thee, and to right thee if thou roam, 
Not with lost toil thou laborest through 
night ; 
Thou mak'st the heaven thou hop'st indeed 
home.'" — Matthew Arnold. 



the 



thy 



A. ». 29. 

April. 

Just before the 

Passover, 

which was 

April 16-24. 

THIRD YEAR 
DURING THE 
GREAT 
GALILEAN- 
MINISTRY. 

PLAIN OF 
BUTAIHA 

BELONGING 
TO 

BETHSAIDA. 



JOHN, BAPTIST, 

BEHEADED IN 

MARCH, A. D. 29. 

JUST BEFORE 

THIS MIRACLE. 

JESUS BET-WEEN 

32 AND 33 YEARS 

OLD. 

Feeding" 
tlie Five 

Thousand. 



The Replacement Function of Food.— ,; One chief 
function of food is replacement. We die daily in a 
truly literal sense, and food makes a daily resurrection 
of life for us. The bod}* is a building of exquisite 
mosaics, and a variegated tessellation, here a brick of 
hydrogen and carbon, and there a brick of carbon and 
nitrogen, etc. . . . The strange fact is that the stones 
of this building are every hour crumbling away, and 
must be replaced as fast as they are pulled down ; "J - -i* 

life-cells take the place of death-cells. . . . The blood is the builder 
which puts in fresh bricks into the falling house. This is the miracle 
of food. . . . Life is the architect, blood the builder and food supplies 
the materials for the construction. 

" A similar wasting process is in the laws of the highest parts of us. 
When Christ said, ' I am the bread of life,' He tells us that physiology 
has companion laws in the spiritual world. A wearing down of soul 
capacity is continually going on. and Christ is here to replace it and to 
keep the soul in a sanitary condition. . . . The saintly soul cannot live 
on its own saintliness. Like the camel in the desert you can live (for a 
time) on the huuips of your own fat, but it is only desert food, and will 
soon become disease. "You will become self-complacent, self-righteous. 
The saint goes out of himself for life. . . . The love of Christ the 
knowledge of God, the comfort of the Holy Ghost, for these the soul 
craves, and they are nutriuient. . . . God is a daily presence ; Christ a 
daily meal ; things eternal a daily recollection ; duty and service a daily 
exercise ; religion our meat and drink. " — Rev. W. W. Peyton. 



The Inspiring Function of Food. — " Another chief function of food 
is to generate heat for the body. I call heat the inspiring function. . . . 
Faith, rest, hope, joy, — these give warmth to the soul. Comfort is 
essential to Christian living. A warm house and a warm body are 
essential to comfort. ... To know Christ is the center of a known and 



198 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 36-46 

30. But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not. 

37. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me 
I will in no wise cast out. 

38. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him 
that sent me. 

39. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath 
given me I should lose nothing, but should raise It up again at the last day. 

40. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, 
and believeth on him, may have everlasting life ; and I will raise him up at the last 
day. 

41. The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came 
down from heaven. 

42. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the Son of Joseph, whose father and mother 
we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? 

43. Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. 

44. No man can come to me, except the father which hath sent me draw him : and 
I will raise him up at the last day. 

45. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man 
therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. 

46. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen 
the Father. 

warm region, and doubt is a cold, frozen zone. . . . Nourished by 
Christ we are like the peach which has sucked in the heat of the sun, 
and become luscious within, and pink outside ; like the lark which has 
absorbed the heat of spring and sings to its spring duties. . . . There is 
crucifixion food for us, there is resurrection food for us, there is 
ascension food. 

" Remember this, that you don't get rid of sin by slipping it, weeding 
it out, flying from it, but by the ingrowth of the Christian Spirit, the 
Christ love, the Christ dignity, the Christ patience, and the Christ 
pray erf ulness." — William Wynne Peyton in Memorabilia of Jesus. 

Food for the Whole Nature. — " God has provided for the wants 
of the mind. Schools and colleges might be called intellectual restau- 
rants, where the minds of the scholars are fed and satisfied. But not 
all kinds of food are wholesome for the body, and, in the same way, not 
all literature is wholesome for the mind. Many of our scholars are 
poisoning their minds with bad reading." — Schauffler. The church, 
the Sunday-school, the prayer-meeting may in the same way be called 
spiritual restaurants or dining-rooms. 



44. Except the Father Draw Him (4\kv<tt]). — " Two words for 
drawing are found in the New Testament, o-vpw and i\icva>. The dis- 



VI 136-46 



ST. JOHN 



99 



tiiiction is not habitually observed, and the meanings 
often overlap. 2vp«> is originally to drag or trail 
along, as a garment or torn slippers. Both words are 
used of haling to justice. (See Acts viii. 3; xvii. 6; 
xvi. 19.) In Acts xiv. 19, o-vpco, of dragging Paul's 
senseless body out of the city of Lystra. In John xxi. 
6, 8, 11, both words of drawing the net. In John 
xviii, 10, IXkvw, of drawing Peter's sword. One dis- 
tinction, however, is observed : <rvp« is never used of 
Christ's attraction of men. See vi. 44 ; xii. 32. 'EXkvo) 
occurs only once outside of John's writings (Acts xvi. 
19). Luther says on this passage : ' The drawing is 
not like that of the executioner, who draws the thief 
up the ladder to the gallows ; but it is a gracious al- 
lurement, such as that of the man whom everybody 
loves, and to whom everybody willingly goes.'" — M. 
R. Vincent in Word Studies. 



A. ». 29. 

April. 

Just before the 

Passover^ 

-which was 

April 16-24. 

THIRD YEAR 

DURING THE 

GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

PLAIN OF 
BUTAIHA 

BELONGING 
TO 

BETHSAIDA. 

JOHN, BAPTIST, 

BEHEADED IN 

MARCH, A. D. 29, 

JUST BEFORE 

THIS MIRACLE. 

JESUS BETWEEN 

32 AND 33 YEARS 

OLD. 

Feeding 

the Five 

Thousand. 



Come . . . The Father Draw Him. — The two ele- 
ments of our salvation are brought together here, the 
divine and the human. We may not be able to reconcile the divine and 
the human in our salvation, but every person is conscious of the facts, 
(1) that there is a part over which he has no control, and which God 
must do for him ; (2) that there is a part he must do for himself, or he 
cannot be saved ; and (3) that if we do our part, God never fails on His 
part. It is as St. Bernard said, "If there is no free 'will, there is 
nothing to save ; if there is no free grace, there is nothing wherewith 
to save." 

We may not be able to harmonize both in theory; but we must do 
with these questions as we do with nature, — ascertain the facts, and 
know that if they are facts, they must be in harmony whether we see it 
or not. No one could by reason alone see how spirit could act upon and 
with matter, as our souls actually do with our bodies. It would seem 
impossible that water, which is 700 times heavier than air, could float in 
large bodies on that air ; and yet, lakes and rivers are floated there in 
clouds. The divine and the human elements in our salvation are facts; 
we all know it; therefore they must harmonize. 



50. A Man May Eat Thereof and Not Die.— An old Scotch baron 
was attacked by his enemy, who encamped before his gates, and would 
allow no provisions to enter them. He continued the siege long enough 
to have exhausted the supplies within, but there were no signs of capitu- 



200 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 47-5 1 

47. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that belie veth on me hath everlasting life. 

48. I am that bread of life. 

49. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 

50. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat 
thereof, and not die. 

51. I am the living bread which came down from heaven ; if any man eat of this 
bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I 
will give for the life of the world. 

lation. Weeks and months passed away, and yet no surrender. After 
a long time the besieger was surprised one morning to see a long line 
of fish, fresh from the sea, hung over the wall, as much as to say, " We 
can feed you ; and surely you can not starve us out, so long as there 
are fish in the sea, for we have an underground connection with it, and 
the supply is exhaustless." So Satan may besiege our gates, but he 
can never compel us to surrender, for our food comes, not through the 
gates, but from above, and through channels invisible to his eye ; and 
the living Bread of Life, which is inexhaustible, is within the gates. No 
matter how long the siege, we need not fear. — London Sunday School 
Chronicle . 



51. If any Man Eat of This Bread — How Jesus Feeds the Soul — 
Only the Living Can Eat. — " If anybody were to say to me, ' I have a 
man at home who stands in my hall, and has stood there for years, but 
he has never eaten a mouthful of bread all the time, nor cost me a 
penny for food,' I should say to myself, ' Oh, yes. that is a bronze man, 
I know, or a plaster cast of a man. He has no life in him, I am sure ; 
for if he had life in him he would have needed bread.' If we could 
live without eating it would be a cheap method of existence; but I 
have never found out the secret, and 1 do not mean to make experi- 
ments. If you are trying it, and have succeeded in it so far that you can 
live without Christ, the bread of life, I fear your life is not that of God's 
people, for they all hunger and thirst after Jesus, the bread of heaven." 
— C. H. Spurgeon. 



Abiding with Christ, remaining permanently under his influence feeds 
the soul. A man wishing to teach his canary to sing ' ' Home, Sweet 
Home," hung the cage in a room by itself, so that it would see its reflec- 
tion in a mirror, and beneath the mirror placed a music box which 
played only that tune. Hearing no other song but this the young can- 
ary soon began to try the notes, and finally got so that it sang the tune 
perfectly. So he that listens continuously to Christ's voice, hears the 



VI: 47-5 1 



ST. TOHN 



20 1 



song of His promises and hopes, abides in His presence, 
finds that his worldly nature is becoming gradually 

" Changed like the world's great scene, when 
without voice 
The rising sun night's vulgar light destroys." 

So Moses' face shone when he came down from the 
mount after dwelling 40 days with God. 



Library. — Suggestive Illustrations, on Acts iv:13, 
where they took knowledge of the disciples that they 
had been with Jesus. 

Gordon's How Christ Came to Church. 

Goethe's Tale of Tales, especially as interpreted by 
Carlyle in his Essays. 



Reference. — See on chapter 15, abiding in Christ. 



A. 1>. 29. 

April. 

Just before the 

Passover, 

which was 

April 16-24. 

THIRD YEAR 

DURING THE 

GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

PLAIN OF 
BUTAIHA 

BELONGING 
TO 

BETHSAIDA. 

JOHN, BAPTIST, 

BEHEADED IN 

MARCH, A. D. 29, 

JUST BEFORE 

THIS MIRACLE. 

JESUS BETWEEN 

32 AND 33 YEARS 

OLD. 

Feeding 

the Five 

Thousand. 



Rapp acini's Daughter. — We have an illustration of the same power' 
of continued influence exerted in the opposite direction, in the story of 
Rappacini's daughter in Hawthorne's " Mosses from an Old Manse.' 
The father was a chemist, who was investigating poisons, and had a 
charming garden in which every plant and flower was poison. His 
beautiful daughter lived in this poison atmosphere till her own breath 
was poison, and the bees and insects which came within its influence 
fell withered and dead at her feet, and bouquets of flowers withered in 
her hand. Her lover, too, was gradually impregnated with the same 
poison as he walked in the garden with her among the flowers and per- 
fumes, till he was startled to find that his own breath was deadly. 



The Law of Assimilation "is by far the most impressive truth 
which underlies the formula of sanctification — the truth that men are 
not only mirrors, but that these mirrors so far from being mere reflec- 
tors of the fleeting things they see, transfer into their own inmost sub- 
stance, and hold in permanent preservation the things that they reflect. 
No one knows how the soul can hold these things. No one knows how 
the miracle is done. No phenomenon in nature, no process in chem- 
istry, no chapter in necromancy can even help us to begin to understand 
this amazing operation. For, think of it, the past is not only focused 
there, in a man's soul, it is there. How could it be reflected from there 
if it were not there? All things that he has ever seen, known, felt, 



202 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 47~5 1 

believed of the surrounding world, are now within him, have become 
part of him, in part are him — he has been changed into their image. 
He may deny it, he may resent it, but they are there. They do not 
adhere to him, they are transfused through him. He cannot alter or 
rub them out. They are not in his memory, they are in him. These 
things, these books, these events, these influences are his makers. In 
their hands are life and death, beauty and deformity. When once the 
image or likeness of any of these is fairly presented to the soul, no 
power on earth can hinder two things happening — it must be absorbed 
into the soul, and forever reflected back again from the character. 
The character is hourly changing for better or for worse according to 
the images which flit across it." — Prof. Henry Drummond. 



Felt Personal Influence. — " Some good man must be singled out 
and kept ever before our eyes, that we may live as if he were looking 
on, and do everything as if he could see it." — Cicero. 
" No receipt openeth the heart but a true friend." 

When Carlisle met Irving it was " iron sharpened iron, diamond cut 
diamond. Each sharpened the face of the other and lit it up with 
sparks and sparkles as of alight that never was on sea or shore." — 
Jacox. 

" Not the sun 
Looks out upon us more revivingly 
In the first days of the first month of spring 
Than a friend's countenance in such an hour." — Schiller. 

" Good ! and your faces brighten, and your eyes 
Glitter, as stars do in a good, sharp wind. 
Sharp ! Why, what else should be the atmosphere 
Of vigorous spirits ? " — Lytton. 

Most of us have had this experience. Some people are like a wet 
blanket to our minds. They never suggest anything. They put you to 
sleep intellectually, and you begin to fear that you are growing old and 
dull. Another person wakes up all that is within you, suggests 
thoughts, kindles your intellect, is to your mind as the spring sun to 
the earth, stirring a thousand seeds to life of whose very existence you 
were hardly conscious before, till you are astonished at yourself. You 
did not know that you were so bright and thoughtful. 






Feeding by Example. — "In that great argument," says Wendell 
Phillips, " which gave us the two most consummate orations of antiquity, 
the question was whether Athens should grant Demosthenes a crown. He 



VI: 47-5 1 



ST. JOHN 



203 



bad fled from battle, and his counsels, though heroic, 
brought the city to ruin. Demosthenes' speech is the 
masterpiece of all eloquence. Of the accusation by 
^Eschines it is praise enough to say that it stands 
second only to that. In it ^schines warns the 
Athenians that in granting crowns they judged them- 
selves and were forming the characters of their 
children." 

"You know well that it is not music, nor the 
gymnasium, nor the schools that mold young men ; it 
is much more the public proclamations, the public ex- 
ample. If you take one whose life has no high pur- 
pose, — one who mocks at morals, — and crown him 
in a theatrum, every boy who sees it is corrupted. 
. . . The character of a city is determined by the 
character of the men it crowns." — JEsehines. We 
become like those who are crowned in our hearts. 

Library. — Prof. Drummond's TJi e Changed Life, 
" The Alchemy of Influence." 



►?.- 



A. D. 29. 

April. 

Just be/ore the 

Passover, 

which was 

April 16-24. 

THIRD YEAR 

DURING THE 

GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

PLAIN OF 
BUTAIHA 

BELONGING 
TO 

BETHSAIDA. 

JOHN, BAPTIST, 

BEHEADED IN 

MARCH, A. D. 29, 

JUST BEFORE 

THIS MIRACLE. 

JESUS BETWEEN 

32 AND 33 YEARS 

OLD. 

Feeding; 

tlie Five 

Thousand. 



The Alchemy of Influence. — " It is the Law of Influence that we 
become like those whom ice habitually admire.'' " Jean Valjean, in the 
masterpiece of Victor Hugo, is Bishop Bienvenu risen from the dead. 
Metempsychosis is a fact. George Eliot's message to the world was that 
men and women make men and women." 

" To live with Socrates — with unveiled face — must have made one 
wise; with Aristides, just. Francis of Assisi must have made one gentle; 
Savonarola, strong. But to have lived with Christ ? To have lived with 
Christ must have made one like Christ ; that is to say, a Christian. 

" During Christ's lifetime the experiment was tried in a startling 
form. A few raw, unspiritual, uninspiring men, were admitted to the 
inner circle of His friendship. The change began at once. Day by day 
we can almost see the first disciples grow. Their manners soften, their 
words become more gentle, their conduct more unselfish. As swallows 
who have found a summer, as frozen buds the spring, their starved 
humanity bursts into a fuller life. They do not know how it is, but 
they are different men. But the people who watch them know well 
how to account for it — 'They have been,' they whisper, 'with Jesus.' 
Already even the mark and seal of His character is upon them — ' They 
have been with Jesus.' Unparalleled phenomenon, that these poor 
fishermen should remind other men of Christ! In looking at a mirror 
one does not see the mirror, or think of it, but only of what it reflects. 



204 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 52-54 



52. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give 
us Ms flesh to eat. 

53. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the 
flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. 

54. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will 
raise him up at the last day. 



For a mirror never calls attention to itself — except when there are 
flaws in it. 

"That this is a real experience and not a vision, that this life is 
possible to men, is being lived by men to-day, is simple biographical 
fact. 

From a thousand witnesses I cannot forbear to summon one. 
The following are the words of one of the highest intellects this age: ' I 
desire to confess to-night, and I desire to say, By the love of God in 
Christ Jesus I am what I am. If you ask me precisely what I mean by 
that, I say, frankly, that more than any recognized influence of my 
father or my mother upon me ; more than the social influence of all the 
members of my father's household ; more, so far as I can trace it, or so 
far as I am made aware of it, than all the social influence of every kind, 
Christ has had the formation of my mind and my disposition. My 
hidden ideals of what is beautiful I have drawn from Christ. My 
thoughts of what is manly, and noble, and pure, have almost all of thein 
arisen from the Lord Jesus Christ. Many men have educated them- 
selves by reading Plutarch's Lives of the Ancient Worthies, and setting 
before themselves one and another of these that in different ages have 
achieved celebrity ; and they have recognized the great power of these 
men on themselves. For more than twenty-five years I instinctively 
have gone to Christ to draw a measure and a rule for everything.' Can 
any one hear the life-music, with its throbbing refrain of Christ, and 
remain unmoved by envy or desire." — Prof. Henry Drummond. 



53. Eat the Flesh of the Son of Man. — Referring to His incar- 
nation, earthly life, and the sacrifice on the cross, by which He made 
atonement for the sins of men, and caused to shine forth in their highest 
glory and supreme power all the motives that could feed and touch the 
hearts of men — love, duty, the evil and danger of sin, hope of eternal 
life, the noblest example. These were made visible by His body. They 
needed to realize them, accept them, live by them. The expression is 
symbolical. We do not eat Jesus' body by eating His actual flesh, even 
if, as some suppose, the bread of the communion were changed into 



VI: 55-71 



ST. JOHN 



205 



*- 



55. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink 
indeed. 

56. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth 
in me, and I in him. 

57. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the 
Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. 

58. This is that bread which came down from heaven : not as 
your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of 
this bread shall live for ever. 

59. These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in 
Capernaum. 

60. Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard 
this, said, This is a hard sayiug; who can hear it? 

61. When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured 
at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? 

62. What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where 
be was before ? 

63. It is the Spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth 
nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and 
they are life. 

64. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus »5* — •£« 

knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and 

who should betray him. 

65. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me 
except it were given unto him of my Father. 

66. r From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with 
him. 

67. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? 

68. Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the 
words of eternal life. 

69. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the Living 
God. 

70. Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a 
devil? 

71. He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon ; for he it was that should betray 
him, being oue of the twelve. 



A.D. 29. 

April. 

Just before the 

Passover, 

which was 

April 16-24. 

THIRD YEAR 

DURING THE 

GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

PLAIN OF 
BUTAIHA 

BELONGING 
TO 

BETHSAIDA. 

JOHN, BAPTIST, 

BEHEADED IN 

MARCH, A. D. 29, 

JUST BEFORE 

THIS MIRACLE. 

JESUS BETWEEN 

32 AND 33 YEARS 

OLD. 

Feeding 

the Five 

Tli 011 sand. 



that. We in no way become what we eat. "What lion eats becomes 
lion." "Sheep eat grass, but it is wool that grows on their backs." We 
should be no better if we could actually eat the body of Christ. We are 
not made holier by the best of food, even angels' food, or " the ambrosia 
and nectar of the gods." And a literal eating would degrade to a mere 
form a glorious and powerful spiritual truth. 

The expression is like the "Tree of Life;" "Water of Life;" and 
similar expressions in John's writings on which one could hang his 
entire theology : " I am the Light of the World; " " the Door; " " the 



20O SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : SS~7 l 

Good Shepherd;" "the Way, the Truth, and the Life;" "the True 
Vine; " " Alpha and Omega; " " the First and the Last and the Living 
One;" "the Root and Offspring of David;" " the Bright and Morning 
Star." 



66. Many of His Disciples Went Back. — " Within the body of the 
hermit crab a minute organism may frequently be discovered, resem- 
bling, when magnified, a miniature kidney bean. A bunch of root like 
processes hangs from one side, and the extremities of these are seen to 
ramify in delicate films through the living tissues of the crab. This 
simple organism is known to the naturalist as sacculma : and though 
a full-grown animal, it consists of no more parts than those just named. 
Not a trace of structure is to be detected within this rude and all but 
inanimate frame; it possesses neither legs, nor eyes, nor mouth, nor 
throat, nor stomach, nor any other organs, external or internal. This 
sacculina is a typical parasite. By means of its twining and theftuous 
roots it imbibes automatically its nourishment ready-prepared from the 
body of the crab. It boards, indeed, entirely at the expense of its host, 
who supplies it liberally with food and shelter, and everything else it 
wants. So far as the result to itself is concerned, this arrangement may 
seem at first sight satisfactory enough : but when we inquire into the 
life history of this small creature we unearth a career of degeneracy all 
but unparalleled in nature. When the young animal first makes its 
appearance, it bears not the remotest resemblance to the adult animal. 
A different name even is given to it by the biologist, who knows it at 
this period as a Nauplius. This minute organism has an oval body, 
supplied with six well- join ted feet, by means of which it paddles briskly 
through the water. For a time it leads an active and independent life, 
industriously securing its own food and escaping enemies by its own 
gallantry. But soon a change takes place. The hereditary taint of 
parasitism is in its blood, and it proceeds to adapt itself to the pauper 
habits of its race. The tiny body first doubles in upon itself, and from 
the two front limbs elongated filaments protrude. Its four hind limbs 
entirely disappear, and twelve short forked swimming 
organs temporarily take their place. Thus strangely meta- The 
morphosed the sacculina sets out in search of a suitable Physiology 
host, and in an evil hour, by that fate which is always of 

ready to accommodate the transgressor, is thrown into the Backsliding, 
company of the hermit crab. With its two filamentary 
processes — which afterwards develop into the root-like organs — it 
penetrates the body ; the sac-like form is gradually assumed ; the whole 
of the swimming feet drop off — they will never be needed again — and 
the animal settles down for the rest of its life as a parasite. . . . There 



VI: 55-71 



ST. JOHN 



207 



could be no more impressive illustration than this of 
what with entire appropriateness one might call ' the 
physiology of backsliding.' We fail to appreciate the 
meaning of spiritual degeneration or detect the terrible 
nature of the consequences only because they evade 
the eye of sense. But could we investigate the spirit 
as a living organism, or study the soul of the back- 
slider on principles of comparative anatomy, we 
should have a revelation of the organic effects of sin, 
even of the mere sin of carelessness as to growth and 
work, which must revolutionize our ideas of practical 
religion. There is no room for the doubt even, that 
what goes on in the body does not with equal certainty 
take place in the spirit under the corresponding cir- 
cumstances or conditions. The penalty of backsliding 
is not something unreal and vague, some unknown 
quantity which may be measured out to us dispropor- 
tionately, or which, perchance, since God is good, we 
may altogether evade. The consequences are already 
marked within the structure of the soul. So to 
speak, they are physiological The thing affected by our indifference 
or by our indulgence is not the book of final judgment, but the present 
fabric of the soul. The punishment of degeneration is simply degener- 
ation — the loss of functions, the decay of organs, the atrophy of the 
spiritual nature. It is well known that the recovery of the backslider 
is one of the hardest problems in spiritual work. To re-invigorate an 
old organ seems more difficult and hopeless than to develop a new one ; 
and the backslider's terrible lot is to have to retrace with enfeebled feet 
each step of the way along which he strayed: and to make up inch by 
inch the leeway he has lost, carrying with him a dead weight of 
acquired reluctance, and scarce knowing whether to be stimulated or 
discouraged by the memory of the previous fall." — Prof. Drummond. 



A.D. 29. 

April. 

Just before the 

Passover, 

which was 

April 16-24. 

THIRD YEAR 

DURING THE 

GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

PLAIN OF 
BUTAIHA 

BELONGING 
TO 

BETHSAIDA 

JOHN, BAPTIST, 

BEHEADED IN 

MARCH, A. D. 29, 

JUST BEFORE 

THIS MIRACLE. 

JESUS BETWEEN 

32 AND 33 YEARS 

OLD. 

Feeding 

the Five 

Thousand. 



71. He Spake of Judas Iscariot. — Was it at this time that Judas, 
began "to be a devil," to turn away from Christ because his sordid 
nature' revolted against this new light, as the owl turns to the night, 
because it cannot look the sun the face ? Did the clay now consciously 
harden under the power of the sun, and the branch decay under the 
influences of rain and light ? 



The Magic Skin.— " In a fable of the Magic Skin, it gave the wearer 
power to get anything he wanted, but every time he gratified his wishes, 



208 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 5 5-7 1 

the skin shrank and compressed him into smaller dimensions until, by 
and by, with the last wish life itself was crushed out. The Magic Skin 
is Selfishness. It is a great thing to learn to say no to one's self, instead 
of indulging every whim and wish, even though there be nothing sinful 
in it. There was no necessary wrong to Moses in his inheriting the 
royal treasures and enjoying the pleasures of Egypt, so far as they were 
not in themselves sinful; but Moses had a high vocation, and these 
would have been hindrances; so he renounced them." — Arthur T. 
Pierson, D. D. 



VII : 1-7 ST. JOHN 209 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES CHAPTER. 

* * 



A. D.29. 

October. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE IN 

THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

Galilee. 



1. After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would 
not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him. 

2. Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand. 

3. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and 
go into Judea, that thy disciples also may see the works that 
thou doest. 

4. For there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he 
himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, 
shew thyself to the world. 

5. For neither did his brethren believe in him. 

6. Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come : but your time is always 
ready. 

7. The world cannot hate you ; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the 
works thereof are evil. 



1. The Jews Sought to Kill Him. — Of all the dwellers by the JEgean, 
Aristides alone was given the title of "The Just," and by that name 
he is still known. By some strange freak of the people, to thwart his 
power, the six thousand shreds or shells were provided for votes secur- 
ing his banishment. Plutarch describes him standing 
among the throng, when an ignorant rustic, supposing him Aristides 
to be a common citizen, requested him to write 4< Aris- the Just, 
tides " upon his sherd. When he asked the petitioner what 
harm Aristides had done him, the clown replied, " None at all; neither 
do I know the man: but I am tired of hearing him called ' The Just.' ' 
The unimpeachable patriot passed over, as requested, the shred bear- 
ing his own name. — D. O. Mears, in Monday Club Sermons. 



5. Netiher Did His Brethren Believe on Him.— " They could not 
entertain the idea that the boy they had knocked about, and made to 
run their messages, could be the long-expected King." — Dods. It is hard 
to believe that one we know well, who eats and drinks with us, has a 
smaller body, and less physical strength or less learning, than we 
have, can be so very great a genius, or so wonderful a saint. 
14 



2IO SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII : \-J 

Reference. — See on iv: 44, " A prophet hath no honor in his own 
country." 

Library. — Jacox's Secular Annotations, Series 1, pp. 143-147. 



6. My Time is Not Yet Come. — It is an evil thing to pick fruit 
before it is ripe, or try to gather a harvest before the grain is ready. 
Wisdom says " the right thing at the right time." " Weeds are good 
plants out of place." Folly is good words spoken on the wrong occa- 
sion to the wrong person. 



7. The World Cannot Hate You, But Me it Hateth. — " With 
what are parts of New York, Chicago, or any of our great cities filled? 
Drink, Sabbath breaking, horse-racing, violence of various kinds, thiev- 
ing, cheating, not to mention other more shameless deeds, are to be 
seen on every hand. Nor is the quiet New England village without its 
share of evil. And when some Dr. Parkhurst dares to cry out against 
these flagrant wrongs and purify the city, the powers that be raise sub- 
stantially the same cry that the council in Jerusalem did. Evil is the 
same in spirit always, and resists that which would bring it to an end. 
If you preach temperance, the rumseller and the drinker cry out. If 
you want to repress Sabbath-breaking, another class cries out that you 
are ruining the town. If you are down on gambling, you will be 
opposed with might and main by another set. It makes no difference 
what form of reform you advocate, there will be some who will con- 
sider it so great an evil that they will cry out and oppose you furiously." 
— A. F. Schanffler, D. D. 

" Jesus replied that their position was entirely different from his. Tbey 
had not been fighting the world, and hence had aroused no hatred. 
They were safe anywhere, but whoever stood against the world's 
influences, condemned its course, shook the thrones of evil, disturbed 
the consciences of those determined to go on in the wrong, must be 
hated by the powers of evil. The rulers were living on a 
powder magazine, and Jesus' teaching was the torch which Why the 
might explode it, ' It was like speaking aloud in the midst Rulers 
of avalanches.' The rulers represented ' that terrible scene Hated Jesus, 
which Beckford lias drawn for us in his Hall of Eblis, 
where the crowd runs around, each man with an incurable wound in 
his bosom,' and feared lest Jesus utter Ins denunciation of their sin, 
' and the great ghastly fabric shall come to pieces at the talismanic 
word.' " — Spurgeon. They were living on the sides of a volcano. 



VII : 8-13 ST. JOHN 211 



A. B. 29. 

October. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE IN 

THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

Galilee. 

4 * 



8. Go ye up unto this feast : I go not up yet unto this feast; 
for my time is not yet full come. 

9. When he had said these words unto them, he abode still in 
Galilee. 

10. IF But when his brethren were gone up, then went he also 
up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. 

11. Then the Jews sought him at the feast, and said, Where 
is he? 

12. And there was much murmuring among the people con- 
cerning him : for some said, He is a good man : others said, Nay ; but he deceiveth 
the people. 

13. Howbeit no man spake openly of him for fear of the Jews. 

Why the World Hated Jesus. — "'Wickedness,' said Aristotle, 
' corrupts a man's reasoning; it gives him false principles and evil 
measures of things. A covetous man understands nothing to be good 
that is not profitable.' 

The argument of Demetrius is unanswerable, ' By this craft they get 
their living.' " — Jeremy Taylor. 



14. Jesus Went Up and Taught, — ' ' That teaching the truth of 
God, incarnated in living men, backed by the authority of Jesus, and 
made mighty by the Holy Spirit, is the power that is revolutionizing the 
world. What seems fanaticism to-day may become 'the fashionable 
creed of to-morrow, and trite as the multiplication table a week after.' 
1 What the tender and poetic youth,' as Emerson says, ' dreams to-day 
. . . is to-morrow the vociferated result of public opinion, and the day 
after is the charter of nations.' 'Ideas strangle statutes, pulse beats 
wear down granite, whether piled in jails or capitols. The people's 
hearts are the only title deeds after all.' 

"The old Hindu dreamed that he saw the human race led out to its 
varied fortune. First he saw men bitted and curbed and the reins went 
back to an iron hand. But his dream changed on and on, until at last 
he saw men led by reins that came from the brain and went back into 
an unseen hand." — Wendell Phillips. 

Jesus Educates His Disciples.— " Of the late Bishop Ames the fol- 
lowing anecdote is told : While presiding over a certain conference in 
the West, a member began a tirade against universities and education, 
thanking God that he had never been corrupted by contact with a col- 
lege. After proceeding thus for a few minutes, the bishop interrupted 
with the question, ' Do I understand that the brother thanks God for 
his ignorance?' ' Well, yes,' was the answer, ' you can put it that way 



212 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII : 14-17 

14. f Now about, the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and 
taught. 

15. And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never 
learned ? 

16. Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. 

17. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of 
God, or whether I speak of myself. 

if you want to.' ' Well, all I have to say,' said the bishop, in his sweet- 
est musical tone, ' all I have to say is. that the brother has a good deal 
to thank God for."' — New Jersey Mirror. 

17. If Any Man Will do His Will (0€\t| to GeXiijitt avTov iroiciv.) "This 
is a notable illustration of the frequent blunders of the A. V. in render- 
ing GeXeiv, to will or determine, as a mere auxiliary verb. By overlook- 
ing the distinct meaning of the verb to will, and resolving willeth to do 
into will do, it sacrifices the real force of the passage. Jesus says, if it 
be one's will to do; if his moral purpose is in sympathy with the divine 
will." — M. R. Vincent. 



" Our wills are ours, we know not why; 
Our wills are ours to make them Thine." — Tennyson. 

" Oh, be my will so swallowed up in Thine 
That I may do Thy will in doing mine." — Hannah More. 



The Way Out of Doubt. — • ' What must one do who is troubled with 
doubts. Shall he read volumes of ' Evidences?' The first step is to give 
up sin. Having done this, let him read the Bible with a mind open to 
conviction. Such a person begins to do the will of God, and he will 
become a believer in the Word. The Bible is clear, but we are dark. A 
man suddenly emerging from long imprisonment is bewildered by the 
light; so Bible perplexities are due mostly to our sinful blindness. It is 
the office of the Holy Spirit to cleanse and strenthen the spiritual vision. 
To whom, then, will God give His Spirit? Not to him who will not 
follow the light he has. The universal maxim is that to one who 
improves, more shall be given. And yet wicked men complain that 
they cannot understand the Bible. As well might a spendthrift com. 
plain because he did not receive his father's whole estate. Bishop Wil- 
son says, 'When religion is made a science, nothing is more intricate ; 
but when made a duty, nothing is more easy.' A French infidel once 
said to rascal, ' If I had your principles, I should be a better man.' 
4 Begin with being a better man, and you will soon have my principles/ 
was the reply." — Wm. H. Lewis, 



VII : 14-17 ST - J 0HN 2I 3 



Doing and Believing. — "A popular saying nowa- 
days is that it doesn't make any difference what a man 
believes if he only acts right; but a Boston clergyman 
once improved on that saying by the simple change: 
' It doesn't make any difference what a man believes if 
he doesn't act right."'— H. C. Trumbull. 



A. D. 29. 

October. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE IN 

THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

Jesus at 
tlie Feast 
of Taber- 
nacles. 



"Even to judge of a painting, you must in some 
measure sympathize with the painter himself." What 
you are determines what you love. You cannot say, ^ "i 

'Go to, I will admire the greatest pictures, I will 
appreciate the greatest masters." You cannot choose your favorites 
They choose you. And they choose you precisely upon your merits. — 
Rollin L. Hartt. 



"Conduct is three-fourths of character." "Doing is the organ of 
life." — Pres. G. Stanley Hall. 
Reference. — See on xx: 27. A Legend of Thomas. 



Character and Conduct. — Herbert Spencer, in his Social Statics, 
says, " Education alone never makes a man better. Creeds pasted on 
the memory, good principles learned by rote, lessons in right and wrong, 
will not eradicate vicious propensities. . . . All history both of the 
race and of the individual, goes to prove that in a majority of cases pre- 
cepts do not act at all. . . . But if in place of making a child 
understand that this thing is right and the other wrong, you make it 
feel that they are so, if you make virtue loved and vice loathed, if you 
produce a state of mind to which proper behavior is natural, spontane- 
ous, instinctive, you do some good." 

Library — Robertson's Sermons, " Obedience the Organ of Spiritual 
Knowledge." Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn, "The Legend 
Beautiful." 



Learning How to Learn. — " Before an artist can do anything the 
instrument must be tuned. Our astronomers at this moment are pre- 
paring for an event which happens only once or twice in a lifetime, the 
total eclipse of the sun in the month of August." (1887. I am writing 
on this verse January 22, 1898, the day when a total eclipse took place 
in India, at 3 o'clock this morning. — Ed.) "They have to have the 
glasses polished and the mirrors polished. to the last degree. They have 
to have the lenses in place and focused upon this spot before the event 
itself takes place. I have spoken of lenses, and that reminds me that 



214 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATONS VII : 14-17 

the instrument which we bring to bear upon truth is a compound thing. 
It consists of many parts. Truth is not a product of the intellect alone, 
it is a product of the whole nature, The body is engaged in it, and the 
mind, and the soul. 

" The body is engaged in it. Our bodily condition affects our view, 
We can make no progress without the full use of all the intellectual 
powers that God has endowed us with. 

' ' But more important than either of these is the moral nature — 
the moral and spiritual nature. If any man will to do His will he shall 
know of the doctrine. 1 ' It doesn't read, " If any man do His will," 
which no man can do perfectly: but if any man be simply willing to do 
His will — if he has an absolutely undivided mind about it — that man 
will know what truth is and know what falsehood is, and that is by 
far the best source of spiritual knowledge on every account — obedience 
to God — absolute sincerity and loyalty in following Christ. 

But even although we use all these three different parts of the instru- 
ment, we have not at all got at the complete method of learning. There 
is a little preliminary that the astronomer has to do before can he make 
his observation. He has to take the cap off his telescope. Many a 
man thinks he is looking at truth when he is only looking at the cap. 
Many a time I have looked down my microscope and thought I 
was looking at the diatom for which I had long been searching, and 
found I had simply been looking at a speck of dust upon the lens itself. 
Many a man thinks he is looking at truth when he is only looking at 
the spectacles he has put on to see it with. He is looking at his own 
spectacles. 

' ' Then, there is one other thing I think we must be careful about, 
and that is — besides having the cap off, and having all the lenses clean 
and in position — to have the instrument rightly focused. Everything 
may be right, and yet when you go and look at the object you see 
things altogether falsely. You see things not only blurred, but you see 
things out of proportion. And there is nothing more important we have 
to bear in mind in running our eye over successive theological truths, 
or religious truths, than that there is a proportion in these truths, and 
that we must see them in their proportion, or we see them falsely. 

"A man may take a dollar or a half-dollar, and hold it to his eye so 
closely that he will hide the sun from him. Or he may so focus his 
telescope that a fly or a boulder may be as large as a mountain. Now, 
let us beware of distortion in the arrangement of the religious truths 
which we hold. It is almost impossible to get things in their proportion 
and symmetry, but this is the thing we must be constantly aiming at. 
"We are told in the Bible to ' add to your faith virtue, and to virtue 
knowledge, and to knowledge balance,' as the word literally means bal- 



VII : 14-17 ST - J 0HN 215 



ance. It is a word taken from the orchestra, where 
all the parts — the sopranos, the basses, the altos and 
the tenors, and all the rest of them — must be regu- 
lated. If you have too much of the bass, or too much 
of the soprano, there is want of harmony. That is 
what I mean by the want of proper focus." — Prof. 
Henry Drummond. Address at Mr. Moody's Northfield 
Summer School. 



A. D. 29. 

October. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE IN 

THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

Jesus at 
tlie Feast 
of Taber- 
nacles, 



Theory and Practice. — There are many things *r *f- 

which it is impossible to know from theory alone. 
Indeed most things are of this kind. We not only understand a doctrine 
by using it, by living it, but the same is true even of a machine. I once 
heard Dr. Pentecost relate the following story : — 

"A schoolmaster, whose duty it was to teach navigation, was cross- 
ing the Atlantic, and kept a record of the voyage, and made the calcu- 
lations for himself. Towards the close of the voyage he went to the 
captain, and said that he whose business it was to teach navigation had 
made the calculations and he was sure the steamer was out of its true 
course, and nearing Gibralter instead of Queenstown. The captain, 
however, kept on his course, and the next day stopped over against 
Queenstown. The schoolmaster asked the captain what was the matter 
with his calculations, and he replied, 'Why simply that you are a 
schoolmaster, while I am a shipmaster.'" 

The man who makes a machine knows the machine. Men tried for 
centuries to make a likeness of the Golden Candlestick, but having only 
a description they failed. But when they saw it in relief on the Arch 
of Titus, then they could interpret the description. 



The Alhambra Door-Way. — " Over the doorway of the old Moorish 
palace, the Alhambra, carved in stone, on one side was a book, and on 
the other, reaching out to clasp it, was a hand. There was a legend that 
when the hand clasped the book the Alhambra would fall. 

The old Moorish palace is a fitting symbol of that king- Hand and 
dom of evil which is dominant in the earth, and for whose Book, 
complete downfall and destruction the Church goes forth 
to war. And when the hand clasps the book Alhambra will fall. The 
hand is the duty, and the book is the doctrine ; and when duty and 
doctrine touch and clasp in the fulness of their divine meaning and 
power, the reign of iniquity will crumble to ruin." — James 1. Vance, 
D. D., The College of the Apostles. 



2l6 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII : 1 8-24 



18. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his 
glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. 

19. Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why 
go ye about to kill me? 

20. The people answered and said, Thou hast a devil: who goeth about to kill 
thee? 

21. Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work, and ye all marvel. 

22. Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision ; (not because it is of Moses, but 
of the fathers;) and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man. 

23. If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses 
should not be broken ; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit 
whole on the sabbath day? 

24. Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. 

Library. — The Choir Invisible, p. 76, 77, has some true remarks on 
the value of hands in giving mental uplift and strength. 



Hand and Mind. — "Shakespeare's wonderful mind was not the 
result of constant labor expended directly upon his mind. If his mind 
had been a constant care to him, he would have been a noodle. It was 
not by nursing his mind, but by using his mind, that he became the 
paragon of poets and the prince of modern interpreters of human life." 
— Washington Gladden, D. D. 



Good Medicine. — We do not know who wrote the following 
acrostic, but it is a splendid receipt for despondency. 

Go 

Right 
On 
Working. 



Wills Wanted. — "There are many kinds of boys and girls in the 
world, but there are three kinds which deserve special mention. They 
have been called the Wills, the Wont's, and the Can'ts. The Wills accom- 
plish everything, the Wont's oppose everything, and the Can'ts fail in 
everything. The Wills are the ones wanted in the army of the Lord. 
There is no room for the Wont's or the Can'ts in that host." — The For- 
eign Missionary. 

Of Myself (Aw l^av-rov) — " Of myself is misleading, being commonly 
understood to mean concerning myself. Rev., correctly, from myself; 
without union with the Father. Compare v. 30." — M. R. Vincent. 



VII: 18-24 



ST. JOHN 



217 



' ' Love took up the harp of life, and sinote on all its 
chords with might, 
Smote the chord of self, which, trembling, passed 
in music out of sight." 



A. D. 29. 

October, 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE IN 

THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

Jesus at 
the Feast 

ofTaber- 
iiaeles. 



* 



24. Judge Not According to the Appearance. — 
" Whatever truth there may be in phrenology or in 
Lavater's kindred science of physiognomy, we shall do 
well scrupulously to avoid forming an opinion against 
a man from his personal appearance. If we so judge we 
shall often commit the greatest injustice, which may, if we should ever 
live to be disfigured by sickness or marred by age, be returned into our 
own bosom to our bitter sorrow. A traveler showed La vater t wo portraits 
— the one a highwayman who had been broken upon the wheel, the 
other was a portrait of Kant the philosopher. He was desired to dis- 
tinguish between them. Lavater took up the portrait of the highway- 
man, and after attentively considering it for some time, ' Here/ said he, 
1 we have the true philosopher. Here is penetration in the eye and 
reflection in the forehead ; here is cause and there is effect ; here is 
combination, there is distinction ; synthetic lips and analytic nose.' 
Then turning to the portrait of the philosopher, he exclaimed, ' The 
calm-thinking villain is so well expressed and so strongly marked in 
this countenance that it needs no comment.' This anecdote Kant used 
to tell with great glee. Plato compared Socrates to the gallipots of the 
Athenian apothecaries, on the outside of which were painted grotesque 
figures of apes and owls, but within they contained precious balsams. 
All the beauty of a Cleopatra cannot save her name from being infa- 
mous ; personal attractions have adorned some of the grossest monsters 
that ever cursed humanity. Judge, then, no man or woman after their 
outward fashion, but with purified eye behold the hidden beauty of the 
heart and life." — G. H. Spurgeon. 



Library. — Suggestive Illustrations on Matthew vii : 1, " Judge not, 
Jacox, Secular Annotations, series 1, p. 208. 



Moral Color Blindness. — No one easily and alone sees truth from 
all sides. Most people are more or less morally color blind. One of the 
Yale professors showed me the other day a United States flag made by 
a color-blind man who selected from silk stripes and stars of different 
colors what he thought to be red, white and blue, and there was no 
pure red, white or blue in it. 



2l8 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII:l8-24 

Library. — Prof. Scripture's fascinating volume of Thinking, Feel 
ing, Doing, gives many illustrations, not only from color (as such curi- 
ous facts as that the mixing of red, yellow and blue paints, makes white, 
while red, green and blue light makes white light), but such as the mis- 
taken seeming accuracy of drum beats, the baton beats of the best 
orchestra leaders, and the marching steps of the most accurate drill- 
masters. 



A Curious Instance of judging by appearances only is found in the 
charge by some reviewer that Abp. Whately was guilty of the prac- 
tice of some tricks of politicians, because he had described them in his 
Annotations on Bacon's Essays. He replies by saying, " On the same 
principle he would, one may. suppose, if he heard of some anatomist 
who had pointed out the situation of the vital parts of the human 
frame, where a wound was likely to prove mortal, conclude that the 
man must be an assassin. But any one of a moderate degree of acute- 
ness will perceive that a person who does practice such tricks is not 
likely to publish a description of them. Burglars do not send word to 
the master of the house at what point they design to break in." 

The Fable of the Clouds. — 

' ' Two children once, at even tide, 
Thus prattled by their parents' side, — 
4 See, mother, see that stormy cloud ! 
What can its inky bosom shroud ? 
It looks so black I do declare 
I shudder quite to see it there ' 
1 And father, father, now behold 
Those others all of pink and gold ! 
How beautiful and bright their hue ! 
I wish that I were up there too 
For if they look so fine from here, 
What must they be when one is near ! ' 
'Children,' the smiling sire replied, 
' I've climbed the mountain's lofty side, 
Where lifted mid the clouds a while, 
Distance no longer could beguile; 
And closer seen, I needs must say 
That all the clouds are merely gray; 
Differing in shade from one another, 
But each in color like his brother, 
The clouds you see of gold and pink 
To others look as black as ink; 



VII : 1 8-24 ST. JOHN 219 



A. D.^9. 

October. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE IN 

THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

Jesus at 
the Feast 
of Taber- 
nacles. 



And that same cloud, so black to you, ^* >Z 

To some may wear a golden hue.' " 

— Quoted in Whately's Annotations. 

Library. — Whately's Annotations, pp. 196-199. 

"One-Eyed Travelers." The two sides to the shield. 

Riding in an Irish jaunting car, in which 

The Irish people sit back to back, so that those on one 

Jaunting seat see one side of the road, and those on 
Car. the other seat only what is on the other 
side. One sees green, the other orange; one 
the farms, the other the sea. Falling in with a particular set, traveling 
by lines of post-chaise, each of which has a separate series of inns, one 
much better than the other. 

Contrast Wm. H. Stead's If Christ Came to Chicago with Edward 
Everett Hale's How Christ Came to Boston; and Stead's Satan's Invisible 
World Displayed with the reports of the Philanthropies of New York, 
which require a book of 500 pages to give the names of the officers of 
the societies in that city which are seeking to help the needy, and the 
article by Jacob A. Reis, acting missionary on the Police Department of 
New York, in the Outlook for November 7, 1898. 



Impressions Cured by Facts. — Caught once in the mist and rain 
upon the top of Mount Washington, we gathered around the fire in the 
Tiptop House, and were looking over photographs of the views, when a 
stranger called my attention to a picture of the railroad train ascend- 
ing the steep sides of the mountain, and gave me these facts. The 
artist had tipped his camera to make the ascent seem 
steeper than it really was, because the steeper the appear- Pictures of 
ance, the greater the sale. A young clergyman reproved the Mt. 
him for the deception, saying that every picture was a lie. Washington 
The artist replied by offering to give him the picture which Railway, 
best expressed his feelings while riding in the car up the 
mountain; and he chose the one that showed the steepest grade. The 
facts are one thing, the feelings another. The facts cure the feelings. 
Each crime is reported in all the papers, while ten thousand good deeds 
pass unnoticed because thay are so common. It seems sometimes to us 
that goodness and piety are decreasing, that " all men are liars," or dis- 
honest, because we apply wrong tests or let the evils that are near make 
impressions upon us, which the facts will correct. 



The Personal Equation in Judging. — " Men in general, and par- 
ticularly professional men, view objects through the media of their own 



220 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII : 25-28 



25. Theu said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he, whom they seek to kill? 

26. But, lo, he speaketh boldly, and they say uothing unto him. Do the rulers 
know indeed that this is the very Christ? 

27. Hovvbeit we know this man whence he is : but when Christ cometh, no man 
kuoweth whence he is. 

28. Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and 
ye know whence I am; and I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, 
whom ye know not. 



pursuits, and express themselves accordingly. A gentlemen was thrown 
from a very restive horse in Hyde Park, and had the misfortune to 
break one of his legs. A crowd instantly collected around him, in 
which were a riding-master, a painter, a mathematician, a lawyer, and 
a clergyman. ' If this unfortunate man,' said the riding-master. ' had 
taken a few lessons in my school, that accident would not have hap- 
pened.' ' How finely the figure was foreshortened in falling! ' said the 
painter. ' He made a parabolic curve,' said the mathematician. ' It is 
a hundred to one,' said the lawyer, ' if he has made his will.' ' Eun for 
a surgeon,' said the clergyman, 'and let us assist the poor man in 
getting home.'" — T. Hughes. 



The Devil of Names.— "As Achelous when he would fight with 
Hercules, would shift himself into a serpent, or would change himself 
into the likeness of a devil, or, being a devil, he would change himself 
into what form and frame he would, even so do some men cover vices 
with the names of virtues — as the proud man is shifted into a clean 
man, a fine man, a handsome man ; the idle man is named a quiet and 
harmless man ; the flatterer is accounted an eloquent person, learned 
and witty in his talk." — Robert Cowdray. 



The pond that when stirred does muddy appear 
Had mud at the bottom when still and clear." 



" The ancients tell us that when Jupiter saw men striving for Truth, 
and pulling her to pieces to secure her for themselves, he sent Mercury, 
who dressed Error up in the imagery of Truth ; and though then men 
were sure to get but little truth, they were as earnest as ever, and lost 
peace, too, in their contentions for its image." 



). Then They Sought to Take Him. 



VII: 29-3I ST. JOHN 221 



29. But I know him ; for I am from him, and he hath sent 
me. 

30. Then they sought to take him : but no man laid hands on 
him, because his hour was not yet come. 

31. And many of the people believed on him, and said, When 
CLrist cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this 
man hath done? 



A. B. 29. 

October. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE IN 

THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

Jesus at 
the Feast 
of Taber- 
nacles. 



Brakeman or Engineer ? — "A pastor being asked 
how he was succeeding in church work recently, re- ^ — *i* 

plied, as one of our exchanges reports, 'Very well, considering the 
number of brakemen we have in proportion to engineers.' We think 
that we know something how that pastor feels." — London S. S. 
Chronicle. 



His Hour Was Not Yet Come. — The harvest must not be gathered 
till the fruit is ripe. Some great man said, "I am immortal till my 
work is done." The success of most things in this world depends on 
timing them with other things. The invention of printing could not 
be successful till cheap paper making was discovered. Most of our 
best inventions were useless till the time was made ripe by other inven- 
tions. Revolutions, reforms and better governments fail because the 
time is not ripe ; their hour has not yet come. 



31. Many of the People Believed. — "A soldier may have very 
little knowledge about his commander's personal history, and may know 
still less about military science, yet may so trust that commander as to 
follow him unswervingly, and to have never a question of the wisdom 
of that commander's orders and action. Such a soldier has ten-fold 
power as a soldier, in contrast with a comrade who knows more and 
trusts less." — H. C. Trumbull. 



They Sought to Take Him (v. 30). — " Now mentally divide the peo- 
ple in Christ's time into two divisions, according as they received or 
rejected Him. In which division, on the whole, were the best men and 
women ? See how they range themselves : 

FOR CHRIST. AGAINST CHRIST. 

Shepherds. Herod. 

Anna and Simeon. Annas. 

John the Baptist. Caiaphas. 

Peter, James, John, Pilate, 



222 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII : 32 

82. f The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him; 
and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him. 

FOR CHRIST. AGAINST CHRIST. 

Nicodemus. Scribes. 

Mary. Pharisees. 

Martha. Sadducees. 

Lazarus. Soldiers. 

" From which division have the largest blessings come to mankind? 
Which throng would you like to stand among, either on earth or at the 
day of judgment ? " 

Many Believed (v. 31). — "Now, coming down to modern times, 
range all professed believers in any city on one side, and all unbelievers 
on the other. See how they stand? 

FOR CHRIST. AGAINST CHRIST. 

Preachers. Liquor dealers. 

Sunday-school teachers. Gamblers. 

City missionaries. Prostitutes. 

Foreign missionaries. Perjurers. 

Christian givers. Thieves. 

Church members. Drunkards. 

Which side would you like to stand on now?" — A. F. Schauffler, 
D. D. , in Sunday School Times. 

When Christ Cometh Will He do More Miracles? — Putting the 
picture of the Messiah as presented by the prophets beside Jesus, it 
was seen that He was the original of the portrait. 

Prophecy. — ( ' Cutting an apple into thin slices at right angles with 
the core, and holding the slices up to the light, you will see the outline 
of the flower that foretold the fruit. Prophecy has become history. So 
in the life of Jesus you find packed away the prophecy of the ages.*' — 
Rev. O. P. Gifford. 

The more the Pharisees opposed and attacked Jesus, the more they 
brought out truth from Him which led men to believe on Him. 

Farmer and the Tiiistles. — A farmer once was so angry at seeing 
Canada thistles taking root and blossoming on his farm, that he took 
them as they were ripening and tore them to atoms, and stamped them 
into the ground with great violence and indignation. The only result 
was that he spread the thistles all over his farm. 



VII : 33-37 ST - J° HN 22 3 



A. D. 29. 

October. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE IN 

THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

Jesus at 
the Feast 
of Taber- 
nacles. 



33. Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with 
you, and then I go unto him that sent me. 

34. Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, 
thither ye cannot come. 

35. Then said the Jews among themselves, Whither will he 
go, that we shall not find him? will he go unto the dispersed 
among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles? 

36. What manner of saying is this that he said, Ye shall 
seek me, and shall not find me : and where I am, thither ye 
cannot come? 

37. In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood 
and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 



32. Sent Officers to Take Him. — Compare with ver. 46. " Sup- 
pose that some savages have seen a cannon charged and discharged. 
Suppose that when they saw it charged a second time, dreading the 
consequences, they should gather stones and clay, and therewith ram 
the cannon full to the muzzle, by way of shutting in the shot and secur- 
ing the safety of the neighborhood. They know not the power of 
gunpowder when it is touched by a spark. This is the sort of blunder 
into which the Pharisees fell." — Wm. Amot. 



34. Where I am, Thither Ye Cannot Come. — Because they did not 
belong there, and were unwilling to change. Their character was exactly 
opposite to that which makes heaven what it is. They belonged to the 
other kingdom. He that knows and loves only savage sounds, cannot sing 
in the Oratorio of the Messiah. The ignorant man cannot come, while 
he remains ignorant, where the cultured man is in the love and appre- 
ciation of literature. 

And the Pharisees had neglected their disease till it was too late to cure 
it. They had been playing with the fire that was slowly burning up 
their dwelling, and warming themselves by it, till in spite of all warn- 
ings it was impossible to save the house. 



37. Reference .— See on chapter iv : 10-15. 



The Last Day of the Feast. — " Let us suppose ourselves in the 
number of worshipers who, on ' the last, the great day of the feast,' 
are leaving their ' booths ' at daybreak to take part in the service. The 
pilgrims are all in festive array. In his right hand each carries a branch 
consisting of a myrtle or willow- branch tied together with a palm- 



224 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII : 33-37 

branch (Lev. 23: 40). In his left hand he carries a bough of the so-called 
Paradise apple, a species of citron. Thus armed, the festive multitude 
■would divide into three bands. One of these to the sound of music 
started in a procession from the temple. It followed a priest who bore 
a golden pitcher capable of holding three log (rather more than two 
pints). They proceeded to the fountain of Siloam, in the valley south 
of the temple. Here the priest filled from this fountain the golden 
pitcher, and brought it back into the court of the temple amid the shouts 
of the multitude and the sound of cymbals and trumpets. The rejoicing 
was so great that the rabbis used to say that he who had never been 
present at this ceremony, and at the other similar ceremonies by which 
this feast was distinguished, did not know what rejoicing meant. The 
return was so timed that they should arrive just as they were laying the 
pieces of the sacrifice on the great altar of burnt-offering, towards the 
close of the ordinary morning sacrifice service. The water from the 
golden pitcher was poured upon the altar. Immediately the great 
' Hallel,' consisting of Psalms 113-118, was chanted antiphonally, or, 
rather, with responses, to the accompaniment of the flute. At the close 
of this festive morning service there was a pause in the services while 
the priests prepared to offer the special sacrifices for the day. At this 
moment there arose, so loud as to be heard throughout the temple, 
the voice of Jesus. He interrupted not the services, for they had for the 
moment ceased; he interpreted, and he fulfilled them." — Edersheim. 



The Thirst of the Human Soul. — ' ' This thirst is deep-seated in the 
nature of man. It manifests itself in the many forms of restless activity 
by which men seek to satisfy their aspirations. The powerlessness of 
the world to quench this thirst is an indication of the Divine origin of 
the soul. He who drinks at a cistern will find that the cistern will run 
dry. He who quaffs the water of a pool may find the water foul and 
turbid. He who tries to quench his thirst by draughts from the sea 
will learn that, so far from assuaging, these salt waters only increase 
the thirst. 

' ' ' The frail vessel thou hast made, 
No hands but thine can fill; 
For the waters of this w^orld have failed, 
And I am thirsty still.' " 

— Prof. J. R. Thomson, M. A. 

Such an one knows ' ' The toil 

Of dropping buckets into empty wells 

And growing old in drawing nothing up." 



Yli : 33-37 ST. john 225 

•'Reading accounts of some shipwrecks, we may 
gather a little of the feeling of thirst. Coleridge puts 
it thus in ' The Ancient Mariner ' — 



Water, water, everywhere 
Nor any drop to drink.' 



A. ». 29. 

October. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE IN 

THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

Jesus at 
the Feast 
of Taber- 
nacles. 



Of all the physical wants man can feel, none is cap- 
able of being raised to such a pitch of intensity as the 
want of water. There are many things that say, ' If 
any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.' 
Then the thirsty drink, and find their thirst un- 
quenched and intensified. We may have our natural Elims. What if 
they change to Marahs V What if the rushing stream dries away to a 
few tantalizing and useless drops?" — Rev. D. Young, B. A. 

Men can live many times longer without food than without water. 

Library. — A poem by Eliza Cook, beginning 

" Should you ever be one of a fainting band.'' 

In Foster's Cyclopedia of Poetical Illustrations, No. 2971, 

" Let heaven this one rich gift withhold, 
How soon we find it is better than gold." 



Let Him Come Unto Me and Drink. — Jesus has everything that will 
satisfy the spiritual thirsts of men. As many-sided as man is, so many- 
sided is the religion of Jesus. As He has made music for the ear, light 
and beauty for the eye, water for thirst, food, for hunger, so He has 
something to meet every want and satisfy every thirst of man. 



The Obelisk or The Well. — "There is an Oriental story of two 
brothers, Ahmed and Omar. Both wished to perform a deed whose 
memory should not fail, but which, as the years rolled on, might sound 
their name and praises far abroad. Omar, with wedge and rope, lifted 
a great obelisk on its base, carving its form in beautiful 
devices and sculpturing many a strange inscription on its An Oriental 
sides. He set it in the hot desert to cope with its gales. Story. 
Ahmed, with deeper wisdom and truer though sadder 
heart, digged a well to cheer the sandy waste and planted about it tall 
date-palms to make cool shade for the thirsty pilgrim and to shake 
down fruits for his hunger. 

" These two deeds illustrate two ways in either of which, we may live. 
We may think of self and worldly success and fame, living to make a 
15 



226 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII : 38, 39 

38. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow 
rivers of living water. 

39. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe ou him should 
receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not ye't 
glorified.) 

name splendid as the tall sculptured obelisk, but as cold and useless to 
the world. Or we may make our life like a well in the desert, with 
cool shade about it, to give drink to the thirsty and shelter and refresh- 
ment to the weary and faint. Which of these two ways of living is the 
more Christ-like, is easy to decide." — J. R. Miller, D. D. 



38. Flow Rivers of Living Water. 

" A German Legend says that once a year, when the full moon casts 
its radiance like a silver bridge across the Rhine, the spirit of Charle- 
magne comes forth and standing midway on the bridge, lifts it hands and 
pronounces a blessing on the homes and fields and rivers of the father- 
land. For Charlemagne read Christ ; for Germany, the world ; for 
' once a year,' unceasingly ; and the legend is true." — David J. Burrell. 
D. D. 



A Wish. 



Make my heart a little garden, 

Where the fairest virtues grow, 
Open there a fountain, springing 
From the depths of life and light, and singing 

Let its waters ever flow." — Henry Van Dyke, D. D. 



Preciousness of Water in the East. — " In the East, during the 
long rainless summer, the wadies, in which during winter there is 
usually a copious supply of water, are dried up. It is only where a 
perennial stream or fountain exists that human habitations are reared. 
Every village has its perennial spring — every habitation must be near 
one. Water is everywhere precious. Thus we find it, as might be 
expected, frequently referred to in Scripture. It is used as an emblem 
of freshness and fertility, of comfort and blessing." — Pulpit Com. 



Cisterns or Fountains. — Those who drink of this living water are 
not selfish, but let it flow freely to all. They are not cisterns, but 
fountains. It is the very nature of the Christian to impart. Those that 
impart to others have the fullest and freshest supply for themselves. 
The outflowing keeps the fountain pure. 



VII:40-44 ST - JOHN 227 



A. D. 29. 

October. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE IN 

THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

Jesus at 
the Feast 
of Taber- 
nacles. 



40. T Many of the people therefore, when they beard this 
saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet. 

41. Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall 
Christ come out of Galilee? 

42. Hath not the Scripture said, That Christ cometh of the 
seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David 
was? 

43. So there was a division among the people because of 
him. 

44. And some of them would have taken him : but no man 
laid hands on him. 



Brook or Bog. — Standing water is never pure. The flowing water 
is fresh, cool, healthful. Certain persons were once compared to a bog 
or marsh, because they absorbed but never gave out ; they received 
the truth, but never taught it. They learned the promises, but never 
imparted them to others ; and hence they became stagnant, malarious, 
full of reptiles, like a bog. 

There is an Oriental Legend of a Fountain into whose waters a 
good angel infused the mysterious power that a new fountain rose and 
gushed wherever some drops fell on the barren plain, so that a traveler 
carrying a portion of this water could safely traverse any desert how- 
ever wide or dry, because he took with him the secret of unfailing 
springs; and he could impart their waters to others. 

" Wild and fanciful the legend; yet may not meanings high 
Visions of better things to come, within its shadow lie ? 
Type of a better fountain to mortals now unsealed, 
The full, free salvation in Christ our Lord revealed! 

Beneath the cross those waters rise, and he who finds them there, 
All through the wilderness of life the living stream may bear ; 
And blessings follow in His steps, until where'er he goes, 
The moral wastes begin to bud and blossom as the rose." 

— Anon, in Foster's Cyclopedia of Poetry, Vol. 2, 4093. 



41. Shall Christ Come Out of Galilee?— "Christ's world-wide 
breadth of idea and loftiness of thought certified to His God-head, as 
the littleness of His critics certified to their mole-hood. Some then 
present, small enough to criticise the Apollo Belvidere because it did 
not conform to their bandy-legged and hunchbacked personal standard, 
set up a critical standard of their own, and said, ' Shall Christ come out 



228 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII : 45-53 

45. t Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said 
unto them, Why have ye not brought him? 

46. The officers answered, Never a man spake like this man. 

47. Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived ? 

48. Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? 

49. But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed. 

50. Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of 
them . ) 

51. Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he 
doeth ? 

52. They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search and look: 
for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. 

53. And every man went unto his own house. 

of Galilee ? ' Many men set the claims of the Son of God, and their 
relation to Him, on an idiotic question of that scope." 

"On men little and large came such power that no man, soldier or 
critic, dared lay hand on Him." — Bp. H. W. Warren, LL. D. 



Jesus Shown to be the Christ by the Very Objections Brought 
Against Him. — Many of the people took so little pains to ascertain the 
facts, that while they were arguing from the Scripture statements as to 
what the Christ must be, and that therefore Jesus could not be the Christ, 
Jesus fulfilled those very predictions; he was of the seed of David, and 
he was born at Bethlehem. Thus, many in attacking religion really are 
attacking a caricature Of their own making, and their very argu- 
ments are a defense of religion rightly understood. 

For many years I have had special satisfaction in tracing this fact in 
the attacks of unbelievers, that as soon as they cease firing at men of 
straw and lay down some positive principles as to what religion must 
be and do, I find that Christianity embodies in itself all that is good 
in what they propose. 

I once heard Mr. Beecher tell the story of his being driven away by a 
mob from one of the anti-slavery meetings in New York. The mob 
followed him, and, thinking he was in a certain house, they attacked it 
with stones, rotten eggs, and all manner of missiles. But Mr. Beecher 
was in another house, and looked with calmness on the flying missiles, 
because he was not there. True Religion looks in the same way at 
many attacks of unbelief, because it is not there. They are attacking 
something else, which they have labeled Religion. 



Divine Words. — Jesus' words were divine, and therefore not like 
man's words. They were clearer, truer, more helpful, more worthy, 



VII: 45-53 



ST. JOHN 



229 



than any man can speak; but especially they were a >b 
message from our Father in heaven. He knew ten 
thousand times more than they, and therefore could 
speak words worth ten thousand times as much. 



49. Cursed. — "As specimens of Rabbinical utter- 
ances concerning this class may be cited the expres- 
sions vermin, people of the earth, and the saying, ' the 
ignorant is impious; only the learned shall have part 
in the resurrection.' " — M. R. Vincent. 



A. D. 29. 

October. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE IN 

THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

Jesus at 

the Feast 

ofTaber- 

uacles. 



52. Out of Galilee, etc. — ' ' When Cordus, the Roman senator, whom 
Tiberius murdered, was addressing his fellows, he began, ' Fathers, they 
accuse me of illegal words; plain proof that there are no illegal deeds 
with which to charge me." — W. Philips. 



53. The Divisions Among the People.-- "My dear young men, the 
human race may for practical purposes be divided into three parts. 
(1) Honest men, who mean to do right, and do it. (2) Knaves, who 
mean to do wrong, and do it. (3) Fools, who mean to do whichever of 
the two is pleasanter. And these last may be divided again into black 
fools — who would rather do wrong, but dare not unless it is the fashion; 
white fools — who would rather do right, but dare not unless it is the 
fashion." — Charles Kingsley, in A Letter to Young Men. 



230 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 



VIII : 1-4 



CHAPTER VIII. 



1. Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. 

2. And early in the morning he came again into the temple, 
and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught 
them. 

3. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman 
taken in adultery ; and when they had set her in the midst, 

4. They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in 
adultery, in the very act. 



A. ». 29. 

October. 

Feast of 

Tabernacles. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE 

NEAR THE END 

OF THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

The 

Woman 

Taken in 

Adultery. 



The Liberty of the Children of God. — This 
chapter is full of truths in answer to the carping criti- 
cisms of the Scribes and Pharisees. But the leaders ^ ^ 
themselves gathered into their garner only chaff, and threw away the 
good grain as the soldier in the sack of a city finding a purse full of 
jewels, threw away the jewels and kept the leather purse. 

" Once upon a time — it is an ancient fable — a critic picked out all 
the faults of a great poet and presented them to Apollo. The god 
received the gift graciously, and set a bag of wheat before the critic 
with the command that he separate the chaff from the kernels. The 
critic did the work with alacrity, and, turning to Apollo for his reward, 
received the chaff. Nothing could show us more appositely than this 
what criticism should not be." 



The Fault-finding Age. —Prof. Stalker in the Preacher and His 
Models, says that " in the history of nearly all minds there is an epoch 
of criticism." "This is the stage at which we agree with Carlyle in 
thinking mankind to be mostly fools, and pronounce every man over 
five and forty, who does not happen to agree with our opinions an old 
fogy." "Criticism, however brilliant, is a comparatively easy thing. 
It is easier to criticise the greatest things superbly, than to do even 
small things partly well." " There is a famous passage in Lucretius, in 
which he speaks of the joy of the mariner who has escaped to dryland, 
when he sees his shipwrecked companions still struggling in the waves. 
This is too heathenish a sentiment ; but I confess I have sometimes 
experienced a touch of it when I have beheld one who has distinguished 
himself by his incisiveness, while still on the terra firma of criticism, 
suddenly dropped in the bottomless sea of active life, and learning 
amidst his first struggles in the waves, not without gulps of salt-water, 
the difference between intention and performance." 



VIII : 5, 6 



ST. JOHN 



23I 



5. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should 
be stoned; but what sayest thou? 

6. This they said, tempting him, that they might have to 
accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with Ms finger 
wrote on the ground, as thouyh he heard them not. 

3. Brought Unto Him a Woman Taken in Adult- 
ery. — Thus making public her sin and shame with a 
motive which showed them to be worse than she was. 

Library. — li An itching to find faults in others, so 
as to justify or cover up our own, is worse than the 
faults themselves. For the quintessence of this, as 
perfected in the pure hate of the devil, see Lucifer's opening speech in 
Mrs. Browning's Drama of Exile. As a portrayal of Satan's real 
character, there is nothing equal to it in literature." — Bishop Warren. 



A. D. 29. 

October. 

Feast of 

Tabernacles. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE 

NEAR THE END 

OF THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

The 

Woman 
Taken in 
Adultery. 



Lucifer having tempted Adam and Eve and seen them yield, and 
driven out of Eden, rejoices in their fall : 

" We, in falling while destiny strangles, 
Pull down with us all 
Let them look to the rest of their angels ! 
Who's safe from a fall?" 



The Cure of Vice. — "Scenes, in character if not in appearance 
similar to this, are constantly reproduced by our novelists and play- 
writers, who harp upon this one vile string, professing like these 
Pharisees that they drag such things before the public gaze for the sake 
of exposing vice and making it hateful, but really because they know 
that there is a large constituency to whom they can best appeal by 
what is sensational, and prurient, and immoral, though to the mascu- 
line and healthy mind disgusting. Many of our modern writers might 
take a hint from our German forefathers, who in their barbarian days, 
held that some vices were to be punished in public, but others buried 
quickly in oblivion, and who, therefore, punished crime of this sort by 
binding it in a wicker crate, and sinking it in a pit of mud out of sight 
forever. When such things are thrust upon us, either in literature 
or elsewhere, we have always the resource of our Lord ; we can turn 
away, as though we heard not ; we can refuse to inquire further into 
such matters, and turn away our eyes from them." — Prof. Marcus 
Dods. 



232 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII : 7~I I 



7. So when tbey continued asking him, lie lifted up himself, and said unto them, 
He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. 

8. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. 

9. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out 
one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, 
and the woman standing in the midst. 

10. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said 
unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? 

11. She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn 
thee; go, and sin no more. 

Living in a Fault-finding Atmosphere. — There are those who live 
and move and have their being in the faults of others ; who never look 
at the church except as men look at the sun through smoked glass, to 
dim its rays and count its spots. They roll the sins of Christians like a 
sweet morsel under their tongues. They never speak of the good 
Christianity has done, the millions it has made better, but only of the 
failings of its disciples. Their very meat and drink is, not to do the will 
of their Father in Heaven, but the errors and shortcomings of His 
children. 



6. This They Said Tempting Him, not to get at the truth, but to get 
Him into a dilemma. They thought they had trapped Him, that He was 
sailing between Scylla and Chary bdis, by the one or the other of which 
He must be wrecked. If He did not bid her to be stoned, He must put His 
decision against that of Moses, the great and Divinely inspired founder 
of the nation, whose law He said He came to fulfil ; and He would seem 
to be in favor of immorality. If he gave his decision in favor of ston- 
ing, He would stand opposed to the Roman law, and be exposed to the 
charge of murder, and the populace would be aroused against Him as 
one reviving the cruelty of the dark ages, and sending forth a thunder- 
bolt that would smite many of themselves. 

Jesus Stooped Down and Wrote on the Ground, as much as to 
say, by symbolical action, "You are appealing to the wrong court; 
who made me a judge or a ruler over you? I have other work to 
attend to." Again, it was an act of delicate courtesy. 

" It turned all eyes from the wretched woman in an anguish of 
shame and terror, to Himself. She stood alone and forgotten ; all eyes 
were then and have ever since beon fixed on the figure of Christ, won- 
dering what and why He wrote in the dust. It is not fanciful to note 
the contrast between this writing and that prescribed in case of the trial 
of a suspected adulteress by the Mosaic law (Numb. 5 : 23). The priest 



VIII: 7-11 ST. JOHN 233 

was to write certain curses in a book, then wash thern <i> 
with bitter water, which the accused was required to 
drink, that the curses might enter into her if she were 
guilty. Christ, on the contrary, writes His sentence 
on the sand, where, in a moment, it will be effaced by 
the pardon. ' Neither do I condemn thee ; go, and sin 
no more.'" — Lyman Abbott, D. D. 



A. ». 29, 

October 

Feast of 

Tabernacles. 

THIRD YEAI 

AN EPISODE 

NEAR THE END 

OF THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

The 

7. He That is Without Sin, Let Him First Cast a Woman 
Stone. — Jesus does not answer as a magistrate, but Adultery. 
as a teacher, a philosopher. The magistrate might 
have to condemn her, but the teacher presents prin- 
ciples of reform which should underlie the judgment of the magis 
trate. 



In Search of the Man of Sin. — Some years ago a brilliant and 
witty lecturer entitled one of his lectures " In Search of the Man of 
Sin." He found sin in the city, in trade, in politics, everywhere, but 
finally returning to his native village, he found the elements of all those 
sins there, and, at last looking into his own heart, and seeing there the 
seeds from which grew all the crimes he had attacked in others, 
declared, " I am the man of sin." 



The Victory of the Sinful. —In Mary Ellen Atkinson's volume of 
poems, entitled "The Architect of Cologne," is one poem, "My Neigh- 
bor," which finely sets forth the weakness and folly of judging others. 
A man annoyed by the faults of his neighbors, first hears a mocking 
whisper, 

" Thou doest well to scorn him ; thou forsooth, 
So wise, so strong, Perfection's self in truth." 

Then an angel shows him his neighbor in the arena of life striving 
among the powers of good and evil. First the watcher stands among 
the demons, and sees the strife from their point of view, as with 
malicious pleasure they saw his failures, proclaimed his errors and 
laughed at his w r ounds. In the " shadow born of hell," 

" Every ray of beauty paled and died, 
And faults and weaknesses were magnified." 

Then he went over to the angels, and standing among their radiant 
bands 

" My wondering gaze I bent 
Upon the wrestler, on whose brow there shone 
A glory I had never seen or known." 



234 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII : 7-1 1 

He gained the victory, his character was transfigured, he wore at last 
the crown of righteousness, and dwelt among the angels. 



The Monk and the Youth. — " There is a story in the Bustan of the 
famous Persian poet Saadi, which seems an echo of this evangelical his- 
tory. Jesus, while on earth, was once entertained in the cell of a 
dervish, or monk, of eminent reputation for sanctity. In the same 
city dwelt a youth, sunk in every sin, " whose heart was so black tint 
Satan himself shrank back from it in horror." This last presently 
appeared before the cell of the monk, and, as if smitten by the very 
presence of the divine prophet, began to lament deeply the sin and 
misery of his life past, and, shedding abundant tears, to implore pardon 
and grace. The monk indignantly interrupted him, demanding how he 
dared to appear in his presence, and in that of God's holy prophet ; 
assured him that for him it was in vain to seek forgiveness, and to 
prove how inexorably he considered his lot was fixed for hell, 
exclaimed, ' My God, grant me but one thing, — that I may stand far 
from this man in the judgment day ! ' On this Jesus spoke : ' It shall 
be even so ; the prayer of both is granted, This sinner has sought 
mercy and grace, and has not sought them in vain. His sins are for- 
given ; his place shall be in paradise at the last day. But this monk 
has prayed that he may never stand near this sinner. His prayer, too, 
is granted : hell shall be his place ; for there this sinner shall never 
come.'" — R. C. Trench, D. D. 

Insight of Jesus. — Jesus saw into their inmost souls, as the 
physician by the Roentgen rays sees through dress and flesh, the bones 
in the body, or the bullet which is working death. 

" Their own defects, invisible to them, 
Seen in another, they at once condemn, 
And tho' self-idolized in every case, 
Hate their own likeness in a brother's face." — Gowper. 

Library. — Jacox's " Secular Annotations," I., 187, and his " Scrip- 
ture Proverbs," p. 531, give many illustrations from literature. 



Library. — Suggestive Illustrations on Matthew, viii: 3-5. 



Motes and Beams. — Indignation at the motes of error in the eyes of 
our brothers too often blinds us to the beams of falsehood in our own. 
Paul's advice is sound (Rom. xiv. 22). 



VIII : 7-tI ST. JOHN 235 



" Deal meekly, gently, with the hopes that guide 
The lowliest brother straying from thy side ; 
If right they bid thee tremble for thine own, 
If wrong the verdict is for God alone. 

' Strive with the wanderer from the beaten path, 
Bearing thy message meekly, not in wrath ; 
Weep for the frail that err, the weak that fall ; 
Have thine own faith, but hope and pray for all." 



Heir of the self-same heritage, 
Child of the self-same God, 

He hath but stumbled in the path, 
We have in weakness trod." 



A. ». 29. 

October. 

Feast of 

Tabernacles. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE 

NEAR THE END 

OF THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

The 

Woman 

Taken in 

Adultery. 



9. Being Convicted by Their Own Conscience, Went Out One by 
One. — " If by the term ' criminals ' we mean every man who has ever 
done an act which the law declares a crime, my subject is very broad ; 
for it includes every lawyer who has ever told a wilful lie in any one of his 
many affidavits, every newspaper man who has ever published or con- 
tributed to the publication of a libel, every business man who has ever 
induced the sale or exchange of property by a false representation. If 
we also include under the term ' criminals ' every man who, without a 
technical violation of the law, has accomplished the practical result of 
a crime, every man who has lawfully cheated his neighbor, every man 
who has lawfully robbed another by superior wisdom and shrewdness 
rather than by superior physical force, every man who has contributed 
money to a campaign committee with the moral certainty that part of 
it is to be expended by others in violation of the election laws, — if all 
such as these are to be classed as criminals, then my subject may be 
fairly translated 'Modern Methods of Treating Ourselves and Each 
Other.' In a certain sense it is literally true that we are all criminals." 
— Prof. Charles A. Collin, of Cornell University. 



And They Went Out One by One. — Prof. Caspar Rene Gregory, of 
Leipzig, in a recent article in the Biblical World, mentions an old manu- 
script which has a curious change in one of the sentences which gives 
the whole story a new coloring. Verse 9 reads ' ' And they, when they 
read it, went out one by one." Prof. Gregory suggests that Jesus 
wrote on the sand the sins and crimes which these accusers had them- 
selves committed ; and when they read it, they went out one by one, 
each one as he read his own criminal record. 



236 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII:7-II 

" One of the first hearers of Jesus, one who was there early, and who 
had stayed at his right side when the scribes came up in front, looked 
down at the ground. He nudged his neighbor and whispered to him. 
They looked across to the foremost of the people at the left. The people 
all began to try to look at what Jesus wrote. The scribe in front, the 
leader of the case, the old man who had planned the ruse, saw the 
people thrust their heads forward. Soon after he looked down, too. 
His name was Eldad. He read : ' Eldad stole a house from Joram's 
widow.' He knew that it was so. He had forgotten all about it. 
Nobody else knew it. He had done it under the form of law. But it 
was true. He could not stone the woman. He might as well go home. 
And he went out. Jesus swept his hand over the sand and began to 
write again. He wrote swiftly, for the next scribe had eagerly begun 
to read. His name was Nahum. He read : ' Nahum slew Azidad in 
the desert.' And the days long gone by came back to him. He saw 
his staff fall upon his friend when no one was there to see. And 
he went out. Jesus wrote faster and faster, and the scribes read 
faster and faster, and they went out faster and faster. One had 
done violence to a maid, and had been able to hinder her from 
ascusing him. Another had seen his neighbor's wife in her bath, and 
had forced her to commit adultery with him. Another had stolen 
money from the temple. Another had profaned the sacred house. 
Another had used for himself the money of the orphans that had been 
put into his care. One had done one sin, another another. All had 
sinned and gone astray. There was none that had done good : no, not 
one. And, however much they had prided themselves on their high 
place, it was all false. Their hedge about the law was a veil to cover 
their sins. They strained at gnats so as to be able to swallow camels. 
And they, when they read it, went out one by one, beginning from the 
eldest, even unto the last : and Jesus was left alone, and the woman in 
the midst." 

Library. — Hawthorne's Mosses from an Old Manse, "The Bosom 
Serpent." 

11. Neither Do I Condemn Thee. Go, and Sin no More. — Punish- 
ment of crime has three objects, (1) the satisfaction of justice ; (2) the 
prevention of injury to society ; and (3) the reformation of the criminal 
himself. By laying the emphasis on the last we gain both the others. 
Christ here anticipated the best modern methods of treating criminals. 
The woman, if she really repented, would have suffered enough to sat- 
isfy justice, and to warn others, as a lighthouse, against the rocks on 
which she had been wrecked. 

" The modern theory is based upon the true Christian doctrine that a 
convict is a man and a brother, not a wild beast, hostis humani generis ; 



VIII .7-11 ST. JOHN 237 



that we who are strong should be disciplining and 
healing physicians to those who are weak, diseased, 
and disorderly, not hesitating to cut and burn where 
surgery is needed, to administer unwelcome disci- 
pline and healing discomforts, but tenderly binding up 
the wounds of scientific surgery, and refreshing 
the famished souls with human sympathy when the 
natural appetite is awakened for the true food of the 
soul." — Prof. Charles A. Collin. 



A.». 29. 

October. 

Feast of 

Tabernacles. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE 

NEAR THE END 

OF THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

The 

Woman 

Taken in 

Adultery. 



Treatment of Criminals. — " The most critical 

*j* v 

period for the prison convict is the few months im- 
mediately following his discharge. 

" At this critical juncture the definite sentence for a fixed term sud- 
denly drops him on the world with a new suit of clothes and a few 
dollars in his pocket. How many graduates of Harvard University 
sent out in such fashion, with all the advantages of reputation, ability, 
and character which Harvard can give, if compelled at once to main- 
tain themselves, without friends of whom they could borrow, — how 
many Harvard graduates could get through the next two years after 
graduation without being compelled to beg or steal? 

" Probationary release on parole, which the indeterminate sentence 
makes possible, is the foundation corner-stone of any rational scientific 
method of treating criminals." 

" The old tradition of criminal heroics was doubtless once true, when 
the best and bravest men were such dangerous criminals that they 
were burned at the stake or hung as traitors against a tyrant. But the 
modern criminal is rather a sneak, a coward, and pro tanio, a fool; for 
modern criminality is stupid folly or unbridled passion. 

" The great mass of men in our prisons are young men, — overgrown, 
stupid, vicious, unbroken colts. They must be broken to harness ; and 
usually this means severe physical compulsion, — not a constant nagging, 
but scientifically administered corporal punishment. The scientific 
surgeon seems cruel ; and some sentimental people think his profession 
must make him hard-hearted, that its influence on the surgeon must be 
brutalizing. Physical compulsion in prisons there must be. I believe 
in making it short, sharp, and effective. With this must be Training, 
Discipline, Education and Hope. Hope is gained by the rewards of 
good behavior through shortening the sentence, and the possibility of 
earning a little money by extra or meritorious work. This element in 
the new prison law of New York has proved of inestimable value, as the 
prison wardens themselves testify. Said Warden Brush of the Sing 
Sing prison, ' With the chance of earning some money for himself, to 



238 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII : 12 

12. H Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he 
that follovveth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. 

stimulate hope, I can restore the man actually dying, physically dying 
from despair and hopelessness, back to healthy life.' The instinct of 
acquisition is one of the most powerful motives, and can often be 
aroused in men of baser nature when nothing else will start them into 
spontaneous activity." — From address before the Massachusetts Prison 
Association, by Prof. Charles A. Collin. 



Library. — Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, where Christian comes to 
the cross, and his burden of sin falls off, and he weeps for joy at the 
relief. Then " as he stood looking and weeping, behold three shining- 
ones came to him, and saluted him with ' Peace be to thee.' So the 
first said to him, 'Thy sins be forgiven thee;' the second stripped him 
of his rags and clothed him with a change of raiment; the third also set 
a mark on his forehead, and gave him a roll with a seal upon it, which 
he bade him look on as he ran, and that he should give it in at the 
celestial gate; so they went on their way. Then Christian gave three 
leaps for joy, and went on singing." 



12. I Am the Light of the World. — The day before Jesus had used 
the splendid ceremonial of the water in the golden pitcher from the 
pool of Siloam to symbolize the fact that He brought the true Water of 
Life. Now He uses another part of the ceremonial to call attention to 
the fact that He was the Light of the World. " He was seated at that 
moment in the treasury — either some special building in the temple 
so called, or that part of the court of the women which contained the 
thirteen chests with trumpet-shaped openings, called shopheroth, into 
which the people, and especially the Pharisees, used to cast their gifts. 
In this court, and therefore close beside Him, were two gigantic candel- 
abra, fifty cubits high and sumptuously gilded, on the summit of which 
nightly during the feast of tabernacles, lamps were lit which shed their 
soft light over all the city. Round these lamps the people, in their joy- 
ful enthusiasm, and even the stateliest priests and Pharisees, joined in 
festal dances ; while, to the sound of flutes and other music, the Levites, 
drawn up in array on the fifteen steps which led up to the court, 
chanted the beautiful psalms which early received the title of 'Songs of 
Degrees.' In allusion to these great lamps, on which some circumstance 
of the moment may have concentrated the attention of the hearers, 
Christ exclaimed to them, 'I am the Light of the World.' " — Canon 
Farrar. 



VIII : 12 ST. JOHN 239 



A. B. 29. 

October. 

Feast of 

Tabernacles. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE 

NEAR THE END 

OF THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

The 

Woman 

Taken in 

Adultery. 



Christ Like the Pillar of Fire in the Wilder- 
ness. — "In commemoration of the Pillar of Fire that 
led their fathers in the trackless desert, the people lit 
large lamps round the temple, and gave themselves 
up to dancing and revelry. The words of Jesus must 
be interpreted by their reference to the light which 
was then being celebrated. Of that light we read that 
''the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of 
cloud, to lead them the way, and by night in a pillar 
of fire to give them light." — Prof. Doris. 

•• A visible pillar of cloud or vapor, a conspicuous 
object that conld be seen not only by the marshaled 
host, but by the scattered companies of women 
and children, as they fed their flocks, and folio wed afar off the 
marvelous signal of the Divine presence. A great host, marching 
through a country without roads or other marks of civilization must be 
provided with some conspicuous object to serve as a signal to the main 
body, and to all straggling parties connected with it. Hence the round 
grate, full of kindled fuel, elevated on a pole, which was carried before 
caravans and armies in the East.'' — Curt ins. "The vast pilgrim cara- 
vans to Mecca guide themselves in a similar way. An Egyptian gen- 
eral, in an ancient inscription, is compared to a flame streaming in 
advance of an army, and this is repeated in an old papyrus. (Chabas, 
V. E., p. 54 Pap. Anast., I.)" — Geikie. " The ancient Persians carried 
a sacred fire in silver altars before their armies, and other ancient 
nations observed a similar custom/' — Prof. Murphy. It is not sug- 
gested that the pillar of cloud and fire was like these, but only that it 
accomplished the same purpose in a far larger and better way. 

''The cloud and fire do not suggest any debasing views of the 
Creator, or impute to Him any properties of the creature. Fire, in 
its various forms of flame, light, heat, and electric flash, is a striking 
emblem of the Great Spirit ; and the smoke or vapor which accompanies 
it is a manifest type of the phenomena which surround and 
conceal the essence, while at the same time they indicate Fire as a 
the presence of the mighty Potentate. The pillar that Symbol of 
balances itself in mid-air, unsupported by the earth and God. 
unshaken by the winds of heaven, serves well to mark the 
presence of him who is independent of the laws of nature. And lastly, 
the pillar of fire and cloud (14:24) is manifestly not the Lord, nor a fig- 
ure of the Lord, but the visible and real sign of His actual presence 
among His people, for their guidance, protection, and comfort," — 
Murphy. 



240 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII : 12 

Jesus was thus the light lifted up on the cross to show the people the 
way to heaven, and to the perfect kingdom of heaven on earth. 

"God's people were not led by a road already made and used, and 
which they could have studied from beginning to end on a map before 
starting ; but they were led day by day, and step by step, by a living 
guide, who chose a route never before trodden. In the morning they 
did not know whether they were to go forward or back, or to stay 
where they were. They had to wait in ignorance till their guiding pil- 
lar moved, and follow in ignorance till it halted. Our passage through 
life is similar. It is not a chart Ave are promised but a guide. We can- 
not tell where next year or next month may be spent. We are not 
informed of any part of our future, and have no means of ascertaining 
the emergencies which may try us, the new ingredients which may sud- 
denly be thrown into our life, and reveal in us what till now has lain 
hidden and dormant. We cannot tell by what kind of path we shall be 
led onwards to our end ; and our security from da}* to day consists not 
at all in this, that we can penetrate the future, and see no dangers in it, 
but our security is that we shall always be guided by infallible and lov- 
ing wisdom." — Prof. Dods. 

" I know not the way I am going. 
But well do I know my Guide." 



Reference. — For illustrations on other ways in which Christ is the 
Light of the World. See under 1 : 5 and ix. 5. 

14. Whence I Came and Whither I Go. — Two essential facts of 
testimony, viz., origin and destiny. " The question was one about His 
own personal consciousness, of which only Himself could bear witness." 
— Lange. " If the sun or the day could speak, and should say: ' I am 
the sun ! ' and it were replied, ' No, thou mayest be the night, for thou 
bearest witness of thyself ! ' how would that sound? Argue it away if 
thou canst " (■' Berlenburg Bible," cited by Stier, " Words of the Lord 
Jesus"). — M. R. Vincent. 

Though I Bear Witness of Myself. — "A light reveals itself as 
well as other objects. So the light bears witness of itself ; it lightens 
eyes that are healthy, and is its own witness, so that men recognize it 
as light." — Augustine. So the pei fume bears witness of itself by its 
fragrance, a rose by its beauty, an artist by his pictures, an architect by 
his buildings The epitaph of Sir Christopher Wren, the architect of 
St. Paul's, London, reads, " si monumentum requiris cireumspice." 
("If you seek for his monument, look around you.") 



VIII: 13-27 ST. JOHN 241 

* 4. 



A. D. 29. 

October. 

Feast 0/ 

Tabernacles. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE 

NEAR THE END 

OF THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

The 

Woman 
Taken in 
Adulter}'. 



13. The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou bearest 
record of thyself; thy record is not true. 

14. Jesus auswered and said unto them, Though I bear re- 
cord of myself, yet my record is true : for I know whence I 
came, and whither I go ; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and 
whither 1 go. 

15. Ye judge after the flesh ; I judge no man. 

16. And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not 
alone, but I and the Father that sent me. 

17. It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two 
men is true. 

18. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that 
sent me beareth witness of me. 

19. Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, ye neither 
know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father 
also. 

20. These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no 
man laid hands on him ; for his hour was not yet come. 

21. Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and 
shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come. 

22. Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, 
ye cannot come. 

23. And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; lam from above: ye are of 
this world ; I am not of this world. 

24. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins : for if ye believe not 
that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. 

25. Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even 
the same that I said unto yoa from the beginning. 

26. I have many things to say and to judge of you : but he that sent me is true; 
and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him. 

27. They understood not that he spake to them of the Father. 

15. Judge. Reference. See on vii: 24. 



20. The Treasury (^a^o^vXaKiw^. " From -ydta, treasure, the royal 
treasury, riches; a Persian word, adopted by the Greeks and Latins, 
occurring only once in the New Testament (Acts viii. 27) , and <j>v\aidj, 
guard." Hence a repository of treasure, in the court of the women 
where were the thirteen chests with trumpet-shaped openings, where 
the money offerings of the people were deposited. 



18. I Am One That Bear Witness. — "The other day, when Dr. 
Temple of London was enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury — the 
primate in the church of England — he laid out for himself a program, 
16 



242 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII: 28-3 1 



28. Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then 
shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father 
hath taught me, I speak these things. 

29. And he that sent me is with me : the Father hath not left me alone ; for I do 
always those things that please him. 

30. As he spake these words, many believed on him. 

31. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my 
word, then are ye my disciples indeed. 

and it is the program which I am going to give you to-day, — a program 
of life which will help you to develop a truly Christian character. He 
said that it would be his aim, God helping him, so to live that the 
Christians whom he met might become better Christians, and those 
whom he met who were not Christians might become Christians. He 
dedicated himself to the witness of character, to the perfecting of 
mind, and body, and spirit, so that his very life itself should constantly 
witness for his Master." — Rev. James L. Houglitaling , D. D., in North- 
field Echoes. 

28. Then Shall ye Know. —Things often appear in a very different 
light after they are done, from their appearance when the doing is con- 
templated. Hence wise men, in exciting and doubtful circumstances, 
often write down their feelings as they would like to express them, and 
then lay the letter aside for a time in order to view their work from the 
standpoint of something said or done. It is often like the view of a 
mountain from another direction and saves from many a blunder. 
President Lincoln is said to have given this advice to one of his secre- 
taries who was very indignant over some action or criticism, and wished 
to write to the critic his feelings in very forcible language. The Presi- 
dent bade him write it all down, then the next day advised him not to 
send the letter, but tear it up. 



31. If Ye Continue in My Word. —Under my instructions, and in 
obedience to them, then are ye my disciples indeed, my true, sincere 
disciples, or scholars, those who take lessons of another. 



Sun-tested, Roller-sifted Disciples.— In Philippians 1:10 Paul 
prays for the Philippians "that ye may be sincere," ctXiKpivcis (from 
h\r\ or c'Xtj, sunlight, and Kpivw, to judge or test. 

' ' Thayer's Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, than which there is 
no better authority, brings out the interesting and instructive fact that 
the word means sun-tested. Paul's prayer is that they may be found 
pure when unfolded and examined by the sun's light. Think of it, a 



VIII: 28-31 



ST. JOHN 



243 



sun-tested Christian ! But that is not all. The slight- 
est change in an external mark of the word, a change 
that some Greek students believe ought to be made 
(the first would be clXKpiv^js, the second ctX.Kpivtfjs, from 
clXciv, to roll), gives quite another turn to the apostle's 
thought. It then means tested by rolling, that is, 
properly, sifted and cleaned by rapid movement or 
rolling to and fro. Why not say roller sifted ? Any 
one that has ever watched the manufacture of flour in 
one of the modern roller-process mills, will catch the 
meaning instantly. A roller-sifted Christian, the 
chaff, the dross, sifted out, the finest of the wheat left. 4* — - — ^ 

For purposes of instruction, in view of the uncert- 
ainty among scholars about the breathing mark, there is no objection 
to combining the two thoughts. Thus we have it : Paul wants to see 
sun-tested and roller-sifted Christians. Many a fine application will 
come to mind at once." — Sunday School Times. 



A. D. 29. 

October. 

Feast of 

Tabernacles. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE 

NEAR THE END 

OF THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

The 

Woman 

Taken in 

Adultery. 



From this verse we learn many things about 



THE SCHOOL OF CHRIST. 

1. The Teacher is Jesus Christ, perfect in knowledge, in method, in 
example ; wise, sympathetic, attractive. 

According to Xenophon's Memorabilia, the ancient Persian monarchs 
selected for the training of their princes the four best men in the king- 
dom, — the wisest, the most just man, the most temperate 
man, and the bravest man, — that the princes under these Four 
might be best fitted to be kings and rulers. All these the Teachers 
disciples of Christ find united in their one Master, who is of Persian 
the wisest, most just, most temperate, and most brave being Princes, 
in the universe. And those who take Him for their teacher 
will be fitted to be kings and priests in the kingdom of God. 

To live with some people is a liberal education. 

" Communion with Christ transfigures a life. Every one we meet leaves 
a touch upon us which becomes part of our character. Our lives are 
like sheets of paper, and every one who couies writes a word or a line, 
or leaves a little picture there." — Rev. J. R. Miller, D. D. 

How much more the personal presence of Jesus. 

" I knew a man who went a thousand miles and back, and supported 
himself at great expense, to be with Agassiz a few weeks at his sum- 
mer school at Penikese. An hour with the great naturalist would have 
amply repaid the trouble, and expense. Even to see the master of any 



244 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII: 28-3 1 

department is helpful. Christ is the master in the department of spiritual 
life." — Bp. H. W. Warren. 

II. The Entrance Examination is the simple but necessary con- 
dition of believing, of accepting Jesus as Lord and teacher, joining His 
school in good faith. 

III. The Scholars are disciples of Jesus, learners (\LaQr\rai, from 
jiavGdvw, to learn, as our word " disciples " is from disco, to learn,) those 
who go to school to Jesus as teacher. They are those who continue in 
His word. 

To visit a school does not make one a member of it. To sit upon the 
benches with the scholars, to pass the time in the school-room, does not 
make one a scholar there; but to accept of the teacher, to submit to his 
discipline, to obey his rules, to pursue the required studies, and to con- 
tinue in these things, makes one a scholar of that school. 



Continuing in Christ's Word. — "A man may plunge into the sea 
and swim awhile, but he cannot ' abide,' he cannot ' continue' therein 
as a fish can. A fish may leap from the water and be a short while in 
the air, but it cannot 'abide,' it cannot 'continue" therein as a bird 
can. There is such a thing as a "flying fish,' but it is not a ' true ' bird, 
a bird ' indeed.' So, if we are to be Christ's disciples indeed, we must 
be able to make our home in the word of Christ; our spirits must drink 
in that word as our bodies inhale the atmosphere." — Dr. Deems. 



Continuing in Christ's word is the test whether one is a scholar or not. 
Some one has said that perseverance is the only virtue that cannot be 
counterfeited. As the German poet says of love, — 

" And tell me how love cometh ? 
'Tis here unsought, unsent. 
And tell me how love goeth ? 
That was not love which went." 

That is not discipleship which does not continue in the School of Christ. 



IV. The Object of the Schooling is to make perfect men, unto the 
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ (Eph. 4:13); the cultiva- 
tion of all the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 4:22, 23); till we stand perfect 
and complete in all the will of God (Col. 4: 12). 



The most entrancing vision of beauty I ever beheld was the view 
from the Eiffel Tower, looking down at night upon the inclosure of the 
Exposition buildings in Paris. The architecture of the buildings them- 



VIII: 28-31 



ST. JOHN 



245 



View from 
Eiffel 
Tower. 



selves was outlined in golden and silver light. The 
very trees bore fruit of electric lights. The groups of 
statuary were illuminated. The lawns were like im- 
mense emeralds surrounded by frames of 
golden light. The illuminated fountains, 
not from light thrown upon them as often 
seen at Saratoga and Niagara Falls, but 
from light underneath, threw up their 
waters in a glorious changing harmony of brilliant 
colors, like variegated fireworks. It was like a dream 
of Paradise, a vision of fairy-land. Then it came to 
me that all this beauty was made from the grass and »fr »t 

water and light of our common every-day life, and that 
so God can take the materials now in our souls, and in society, and 
transform them into perfect men in Christ Jesus. 



A. D. 29. 

October. 

Feast of 

Tabernacles. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE 

NEAR THE END 

OF THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

The 
Woman 
Taken in 
Adultery, 



Library. — Goethe's Tale of Tales, as interpreted in Carlyle's Essays. 
J. R. Miller's Making the Most of Life. " Transfigured Lives." 
Reference. — See on chapter iii: 3—5. 



The Church as a School. —We are apt to think of the church, 
which is one of the schools of Christ, as claiming that its members are 
perfect, and some will not join because they "are not good enough," 
though they trust that they are true disciples. 

The church, or any band of disciples, is not an assembly of perfect 
people ready-made for heaven, but of people who are seeking to be perfect 
through Jesus Christ; not an art gallery, but a studio; not a storehouse, 
but a factory. It is a school where imperfect people are longing and 
striving to be good, and where Jesus is teaching and training them. 
Even if any become perfect in their measure, the measure can increase; 
even should the cup be full, the full cup can become larger. 



Clay Transformed. — ' ' Mr. Beecher once in a lecture in City Hall 
illustrated the advantage of education by taking a lump of clay as an 
illustration. 

li The brickmaker makes a brick of it at a dollar a day; the potter 
makes a garden pot of it at two dollars a day; then he took us by suc- 
cessive stages up to the man who earns a hundred dollars a week for 
making the vases and crockery at "Wedge wood, Dalton or Trenton." 

Library. — O. W. Holmes' Poems "The Chambered Nautilus." 



246 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII : 28-3 1 

MEN WANTED. 

" The world wants men — large-hearted, manly men, 
Men who shall join its chorus, and prolong 
The psalm of labor and the psalm of love. 
The age wants heroes — heroes who shall dare 
To struggle in the solid ranks of truth: 
To clutch the monster error by the throat; 
To bear opinion to a loftier seat: 
To blot the error of oppression out, 
And lead a universal freedom in. 
And heaven wants souls — fresh and capacious souls, 
To taste its raptures, and expand, like flowers, 
Beneath the glory of its central sun. 
It wants fresh souls — not lean and shriveled ones; 
It wants fresh souls, my brother — give it thine, 
If thou indeed will be what scholars should; 
If thou wilt be a hero, and will strive 
To help thy fellow and exalt thyself, 
Thy feet, at last, shall stand on jasper floors; 
Thy heart, at last, shall seem a thousand hearts — 
Each single heart with myriad raptures filled — 
While thou shalt sit with princes and with kings, 
Rich in the jewel of a ransomed soul." 



V. The Term-time is the whole life. True disciples continue in Christ's 
Word. This abiding is not only the test of discipleship, but is the 
means of progress and growth as disciples. One cannot starve his soul, 
and yet grow into a " a perfect man in Christ Jesus." As the common 
bee develops into a queen bee, by richer food and larger room, so the 
Christian grows and his soul expands by abiding in the word of Christ, 
feeding on it, and exercising it in his daily life. 



The Slow Process op Transformation. — " The chemist will tell 
you that the glowing diamond is but simple carbon, and that, so far, 
charcoal and the diamond are one and the same thing; but it requires 
no professional knowledge to convince a man that it would take more 
than a bushel of charcoal to make a diamond as large as a pea. So 
again, the most brilliant pearl is said to be a mere solidified deposit of 
oyster-juice; but even the unlettered fisherman can understand that the 
progress from the oyster-juice to the pearly substance is slow and 
tedious." — S. S. Times. 



VIII : 28-3I ST. JOHN 247 



VI. The School-books. — 1. The teaching of Christ, 

the Word of God. "Into Ezekiel's hand there was 

put a roll written within and without, . . . 

Eating the an objective revelation which he himself 
Word. had not written ; but before he could de- 
liver it to others he had to eat it; all that 
was written on it had to become a part of himself , had 
to be taken into his inmost experience, and to be di- 
gested by him, and become his own very life's blood." 
— Prof. Marcus Dods. 

2. The discipline of life. The training and knowl- 
edge which come from practicing under a competent 
teacher the things learned in books. The pupil in 
chemistry works in the laboratory. The student of architecture is con- 
tinually making drawings and calculations. The students in the 
institutes of technology work out their lessons in machine shops and 
laboratories. Manual training is coming to be a part of education. 



A. ». 29. 

October. 

Feast of 

Tabernacles. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE 

NEAR THE END 

OF THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

The 

Woman 

Taken in 

Adultery. 



So Jesus gives us not only some command or promise or example 
from His Word but some special discipline, to teach each virtue. There 
is something in our lives to cherish every good quality and to cultivate 
every virtue. When we have special trials of our patience, or our tem- 
per, or our honesty, then we are to remember that we are in Christ's 
school, and that He is teaching us a lesson. In times of prosperity, and 
peace, and joy, we are learning other lessons in the same school. Thus 
we become 

" Rich in experience that angels might covet, 
Rich in a faith that has grown with the years." 



The best part of business, of daily toil, consists of the moral and intel- 
lectual lessons we may learn from them. Daily life is a 
university, the home is a college, the office, the factory, The Univer- 
the farm are high schools, each with more courses than any sity of Daily 
other university can offer. Life. 



Library. — Longfellow has a short poem of Count Arnaldos listening 
to the song of some sailors which charmed the very sea birds : 

" And his soul was. full of longing, 

And he cried with impulse strong, 
' Helmsman, for the love of heaven 
Teach me, too, that wondrous song.' 



248 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII: 28-3 1 

" ' Wouldst thou,' so the helmsman answered, 
Learn the secret of the sea ? 
Only those who brave its dangers 
Comprehend its mystery.' " 



Blessed Be Drudgery. — "I am going to speak of the Culture that 
comes through this very Drudgery. 

" ' Culture through my drudgery ! ' some one is now thinking : ' This 
tread mill that has worn me out, this grind I hate, this plod that, as 
long ago as I remember it, seemed tiresome, — to this have I owed " cul- 
ture ? " beyond all books, bej^ond all class-work at the school, beyond all 
special opportunities of what I call my " education," it is this drill and 
pressure of my daily task that is my great school-master. My daily 
task, whatever it be, that is what mainly educates me. All other cul- 
ture is mere luxury compared with what that gives. That gives the 
indispensables. Yet, fool that I am, this pressure of my daily task is 
the very thing that I so growl at as my " Drudgery ! " 

" Our prime elements are due to our drudgery, — I mean that literally; 
the fundamentals, that underlie all fineness, and without which no 
other culture worth the winning is even possible. These, for instance, 
— and what names are more familiar? Power of attention ; power of 
industry ; promptitude in beginning work ; method and accuracy and 
despatch in doing work ; perseverance ; courage before difficulties > 
cheer under straining burdens ; self-control and self-denial and temper- 
ance. These are the prime qualities ; these the fundamentals." — W. C. 
Gannett, in Blessed Be Drudgery. 



Our Friend the Enemy. — Failures. — "Half, two-thirds, of our 
best experience in life is his gift. 

" Look along any path of life at the stateliest figures walking in it. 
They are, most of them, figures of men that have failed more than once. 
Yes, any path, ' It is very well,' said Fox, the great English orator, 
' very well for a young man to distinguish himself by a brilliant first 
speech. He may go on, or he maybe satisfied. Show me a young man 
who has not succeeded at first, and has yet gone on, and I will back 
him.'' Miss Alcott wrote and burnt, and burnt and wrote, until at last 
her ' Little Men and Women' came out of the fire. By the failure in 
art, by the failure in science, by the failure in business, by the failure in 
character, if we wrestle on, we win salvation. But all depends upon 
that if. The hard lot called Poverty, Ignorance, Narrow Conditions, 
Accidents, is waiting to give us, after the struggle, Temperance, Dili- 
gence, Fortitude, Concentration. But after the struggle : that is, as we 
wrestle with those conditions, these elemental powers are waked in us 



VIII: 28-31 



ST. JOHN 



249 



and slowly trained, and at last are left ours, — our 
instruments by which to carve out life's success and 
happiness." — W. C. Gannett. 



My Treasures, — 



A. i>. 29. 

October. 

Feast of 

Tabernacles. 

THIRD YEAR. 
AN EPISODE 

Let me count my treasures, NEA r the end 

All my soul holds dear, ° F g ™? L ean AT 

Given me by dark spirits ministry. 

Whom I used to fear. Woman 

Taken in 

Through long days of anguish Adultery. 

And sad nights did Pain ^ 

Forge my shield Endurance, 
Bright and free from stain. 

Doubt in misty caverns, 

Mid dark horrors, sought, 
Till my peerless jewel 

Faith to me she brought. 

Sorrow, that I wearied 

Should remain so long, 
Wreathed my starry glory, 

The bright crown of Song. 

Strife, that racked my spirit 

Without hope or rest, 
Left the blooming flower 

Patience on my breast. 

Suffering, that I dreaded, 

Ignorant of her charms, 
Laid the fair child Pity, 

Smiling in my arms. 

So I count my treasures, 

Stored in days long past, 
And I thank the givers 

Whom I know at last." 

— Quoted by W. F. Gannett. 



Library. — The faith that makes faithful, "Blesced be Drudgery 
and " Wrestling and Blessing." 



Wendell Phillips changed in one of his speeches a single word of 
Bryant's "Thanatopsis," thus, — 



250 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII '.32-36 



32. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. 

33. II They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to 
any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? 

34. Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth 
sin is the servant of sin. 

35. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. 

36. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. 

"The hills, 
Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun, 
The venerable woods, rivers that move 
In majesty, and the complaining brooks 
That make the meadows green, and poured round all 
Old Ocean's gray and melancholy waste, 
Are but the solemn decorations all 
Of the great School of Man." 



32. The Truth Shall Make You Free. — Deliverance from the 
Roman yoke was one of the great works expected of the Messiah. But 
that freedom, without the freedom of the soul from sin would amount 
to but little. Real outward freedom must grow out of spiritual free- 
dom, just as the shell of the shellfish grows out of itself, or as fruits and 
flowers out of the tree that bears them. A mere outward freedom 
would be like the oranges Sidney Smith once fastened to the trees of his 
lawn, or like the electric lights and Chinese lanterns seen on the trees 
of Paris during great gala nights. Hence Jesus showed them the way 
to real freedom, through the truth. 



Truth. — "According to the Jewish mystics, the Hebrew word for 
' truth ' contains a great mystery ; for its first letter is the first letter of 
the alphabet, and its last letter is the last letter of the alphabet, so that 
the Truth is the First and the Last, the Aleph (A) and the Taw (T) ; or, 
according to the corresponding Greek phrase with which the New Tes- 
tament has made every one familiar, the Alpha and the Omega." — Rev. 
William Ewing. 

How Does the Truth Give Freedom?— True freedom comes only by 
the truth ; living according to the realities of things ; the truth revealed 
by God ; the truth of His spiritual laws. (1) The truth of pardon gives 
freedom from the fear of punishment. (2) The truth, confessed to God 
and man, gives freedom from the burdens of past sin, the freedom of 
reconciliation. (3) The truth of God's loving care gives freedom from 



VIII 132-36 ST. JOHN 251 



corroding cares and burdens. (4) The truths of the 
Gospel give freedom from sin and the tyranny of bad 
habits and our evil nature. (5) The broad truths of 
God in heaven and earth give mental freedom. (6) 
The truths of salvation, a new heart, the presence of 
the Holy Spirit, imparts the new life which makes 
Christian action free and natural. (7) As a knowledge 
of natural law enables us to make that law our ser- 
vant and helper, and us the masters of nature, so a 
knowledge of the'spiritual laws makes us masters in 
that realm, and enables us to make all its powers our 
servants and helpers. 



A. D. 29. 

October. 

Feast of 

Tabernacles. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE 

NEAR THE END 

OF THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

Tlie 

Woman 

Taken in 

Adultery. 



Freedom of the City. — ' ' They make a great fuss when they give a 
man the freedom of the city of London. There is a fine gold casket to 
put it in. You have got the liberty of the New Jerusalem, and your 
faith, like a golden box, holds the deeds of your freemanship. Take 
care of them and rejoice in them to-night." — C. H. Spurgeon. 



William Tell and Liberty. — " The freedom given to men by Christ 
is illustrated by the drama of William Tell, where Tell is represented as 
overtaken in the mountains by a furious storm: 

" You know the jutting cliff, round which a track 
Up hither winds, whose base is but the brow 
To such another one, with scanty room 
For two abreast to pass ? O'ertaken there 
By the mountain blast, I've laid me flat along, 
And while gust followed gust more furiously 
As if to sweep me o'er the horrid brink, — 
I have thought of other lands, whose storms 
Are summer flaws to those of mine, and just 
Have wished me there: the thought that mine was free 
Has checked that wish; and I have raised my head, 
And cried in thraldom to that furious wind, 
' Blow on : this is the land of liberty ! ' " 

So the Christian dwells in the land of liberty, and amid storms and 
trials, as he walks within the borders of his promised land, he can say 
to every impulse and desire of his renewed heart, " Blow on: this is the 
land of liberty."' 



The Sphere of Liberty. — ' ' There is a disposition in this age of 
statistics to put all moral facts into numerical forms. Somebody says, 



252 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII : 32-36 

in this spirit, that about four per cent of an average life is controlled by 
free volition; all the rest is the creature of circumstance. May we not 
say that a great lifeis oue in which the percentage of freedom is carried 
to a high figure, and that our smallness is measured by our content with 
four per cent, or even two? Nor is our sphere of liberty enlarged by 
that effort to subject circumstances to our pleasure, whose outcome we 
call the progress of civilization. We remain as dependent on the 
improved circumstances as we were upon the old ; railroads and electric 
lights are no liberators. The true progress must come with the libera- 
tion of our spirits, and not from readjustments of that kind. For want 
of that liberation we are restless and eager for material outlet, as though 
that would help us. But all mistake the disease, and thus fail of the 
remedy. The freest life ever lived, and that which best satisfied the 
Man who lived it, was spent in circumstances of no material advantage. 
But men saw in it the life of a man in whose hands circumstances were 
plastic because he never had enslaved himself to them." — Sunday 
School Times. 

Library. — Van Dyke's Gospel for an Age of Doubt, "Liberty." 
" Thoughts of a Human Automaton," in Fortnightly Review, March 
1892, quoted in the above. 

33. We be Abraham's Seed. — " The dignity of a free man, as Godet 
says, shone on the brow of every one who bore the name of child of 
Abraham. As the Talmud expresses it, ' All Israel are the children of 
kings ' ; and they applied the dogma even to the affairs of common life, 
saying that as ' the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not even 
Solomon's feast could be too good for them.'" — S. S. Times. "The 
position of personal bond-slave to any individual has always been 
peculiarly repugnant to the Jew. It is extremely difficult to find a 
satisfactory Jewish servant. To serve a 'goi' or Gentile is reckoned 
most humiliating." — Rev. W. Ewing. 

1 ' According to one of the rabbinical stories, Abraham sits at the gate 
of Gehenna, and suffers no one to enter that place of torment who bears 
the covenant-sign of Abraham's seed." 

"This Race- narrowness, if we may so call it, is a characteristic 
of Asiatics to the present day. As I have heard a Syrian remark, « It 
would take a good many Adams to satisfy the exclusive pride of our 
many sects.' But perhaps the closest parallel to the claim 'We are 
Abraham's children ' is to be found among the Moslems, in the pride of 
the ' sherifs,' or descendants of the prophet Mohammed. Every Eastern 
traveler is familiar with the green turban of the sherif. He alone may 
wear this color ; and however humble his calling — for he is often in the 
very lowest employments, frequently as waiter in a cafe — he is one of 



VIII : 32-36 ST. JOHN 253 



the holy seed, and is recognized as such. But it is 4" 

held impossible for the sherif, as it was for the seed of a. D. 29. 

Abraham of old, to miss a station of dignity in the October 

future world." — Sunday School Times. Tabernacles. 

THIRD YEAR 

AN EPISODE 

34. Whosoever Committeth Sin is the Servant 5?™™^? 
(the Bond-servant, the Slave) of Sin. — Because galilean 

_ - , , , ., , . , , . . MINISTRY. 

his evil nature and bad habits hold dominion over The 

him and compel him to do that which he knows is Woman 

Tsikc 1 11 in 
wrong, and which he often resists in vain. " For the Adultery. 

worst tyrant a man can serve is his own selfish heart." : 

— Dr. Hovey. " The idea that vice is slavery is com- 
mon in all literature: frequent in the classics." — 
Cambridge Bible. "Dream not of freedom while under the mastery 
of your desires." — Plato. "No one committing deeds of wickedness 
can be free." —Arrian. " Guilt may bear the name of virtue, but it is 
base bondage." — Epictetus. " A good man, though he were a slave, is 
yet free ; whereas, a wicked man, though he were a king, is yet 
enslaved; nor is he enslaved to one master only, but, which renders his 
case so far worse, to as many masters as he has lusts." — Augustine. 

"Even the heathen considered the virtues essential to true freedom. 
Cicero said 'The wise man alone is free.' Plato represents the lusts as 
the hardest tyrants. Seneca speaks of the passions as the worst thral- 
dom. Epictetus said ' Liberty is the name of virtue.' And this virtue 
is obtained only through Christ." — D. Thomas, D. D. 



Sinner Forging His Own Chains. — "Suppose I go to a blacksmith 
and say, ' Make me a very long and heavy chain of these dimensions. 
When done I will pay you.' He lays aside his engagements and goes 
hard at work. I call as arranged and say, ' I have concluded to make 
the chain longer ; work on another week.' Flattered with the promise 
of a fresh reward he toils on. I call again and still insist ' it is too 
short.' ' But,' says he, ' my iron is expended and so is my strength. I 
want my pay.' I urge him to add the last link of which he is capable. 
Then instead of paying him suppose I bind him hand and foot and cast 
him into a furnace of fire. Such is the service of sin. 1 " — C. Field. 

Library. — Illustrations of the slavery of sin. Lord Marmion, in 
Scott's poems. Eugene Aram, in Hood's poem. The veiled prophet of 
Khorassan, in Moore's Lalla Rookh. Richard III. and Macbeth, in 
Shakespeare. 

" There is one poor little old play on words, which, after all contains 
a suggestiou of solid sense worth teaching our children early : " 



254 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII : 32-36 

" Live, vile, and evil have the self-same letters : 
He lives but vile whom evil holds in fetters. 1 ' — S. S. Times. 



The Slavery of Sin may find one of its best illustrations in intem- 
perance. And a temperance lesson may be enforced while teaching the 
larger truth. 

The Slavery of Sin is three-fold. (1) The sinner is fettered and 
restrained from doing right freely. His evil nature and his bad habits 
prevent him. The habit of intemperance is one of the clearest illustra- 
tions of this. The drunkard often longs to be happy and respected and 
healthy again, and vows to leave his cups forever ; but his master pas- 
sion cracks its whip over him, and he goes to his drink again. So it is 
with all sinful habits. " The good which I would, I do not ; but the evil 
which I would not, that I practice." " For not what I would, that do I 
practice, but what I hate, that I do" (Rom. 7:15, 19). (2) The sinner cannot 
do wrong freely. His conscience, his whole moral nature, the voice of 
God, the fear of punishment, ever stand in his way, and protest against 
his course. They never cease to act so long as the soul exists. As long as 
God rules, as long as the law of nature exists, so long can no man do wrong 
unfettered and free. (3) The sinner is not free because he is compelled to 
bear the consequences of sin, against his will. He cannot escape from the 
gnawing of conscience. Lady Macbeth still washes her hands in vain, 
for "all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." 
Eugene Aram still feels that heaven and earth are leagued against him, 

for 

" The secret then he knew was one 

The earth refused to keep, 

Or land or sea, though it should be 

Ten thousand fathoms deep." 



False Idea of Freedom. — It is not uncommon for the young to 
imagine that the sinner alone is free, and the Christian is enslaved. 
Who so free as he who bursts all restraints, and follows his own sweet 
will ; who rejects all commandments that fence him from forbidden 
fields, who will have no Bible like the cherubim with flaming sword 
shutting him out of his paradise, — if this is not freedom, what is ? 

And the Christian seems to him forever hampered and restrained, 
with whips of small cords driving him out of many a temple of pleasure, 
and " no trespassing here " over the gate to many a field of delight, com- 
pelled to march solemnly through life to the music of the command- 
ments, in the narrow road between the fences of the law. If this is not 
slavery what is? Thus he seems to see in the casting off of the restraints 



VIII : 32-36 



ST. JOHN 



255 



of conscience and law how he can be 
wind wherever it blows," and behold 



free as the <i- 



" On that flag unfurled, 
These words of sunshine, Freedom to the world, — 
Sent to free this world from every bond and stain, 
And bring its primal glories back again." 

Library. — "In Keats' beautiful poem of 'Lemia,' 
a young man had been led captive by a phantom girl, 
and was the slave of her beauty, until the old teacher 
came in and fixed his thoughtful eye upon the figure, 
and it vanished." — Wendell Piiillips. 



A. D. 29. 

October. 

Feast of 
Tabernacles. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE 

NEAR THE END 

OF THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

The 

Woman 
Taken in 
Adultery. 



Law and Liberty. — " True liberty is secured when the will moves 
freely within its true element, which is moral good. Moral good is to 
the human will what the air is to the bird, what water is to the fish. 
Bird and fish have freedom enough in their respective elements. Water 
is death to the bird as air is death to the fish. A bird can sometimes 
drown itself ; a fish can leap out of the water and die upon the bank ; 
but the liberty of fish and bird is sufficiently complete without this 
added capacity for self-destruction. And so it is with man. Moral good, 
the moral law of Go J, is the element within which the human will may 
safely find room for its utmost capacities of healthful exercise and 
invigoration ; and when a man takes it into his head that his freedom is 
incomplete if it does not include a license to do wrong, he is in a fair 
way to precipitate himself out of his true vital element, to the enslave- 
ment and ruin of his will. Every Christian will understand this. He 
knows that he would gain nothing in the way of moral freedom by a 
murder or a lie. He knows that our Lord, who did no sin, was not, 
therefore, other than morally free." — Canon Liddon. 



" Byron was drawing on his own bitter experience when he wrote the 
lines : 

"Lord of himself — that heritage of woe, 
That fearful empire which the human breast 
But holds to rob the heart within of rest." 



Live by law, not like the fool, 

But like the bird, who freely sings 
In strictest bonds of rhyme and rule, 

And finds in them — not bonds but wings." 

— Coventry Patmore. 



256 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII : 32-36 

"Law does not put the least restraint 
Upon our freedom, but maintain't, 
Or if it does, 'tis for our good 
To give us freer latitude, 
For wholesome laws preserve us free 
By stinting of our liberty." — Samuel Butler. 



Tennyson's Vision of Sin.—' ' Nothing," says one, " could more power- 
fully depict the ruinous effect of sin and the slavery and bondage into 
which it brings the soul than The Vision of Sin by Tennyson. In this 
poem we see the youth born to great things going forth on winged 
steed, but drawn half- willingly, half- reluctantly, into the maze of sen- 
suous delight, mingling in the giddy dance of the dwellers in the palace 
of pleasure, till, intoxicated and blinded to the consequences, he loses 
all lofty aims, and sinks to the level of a votary of the ' sensual sty.'' 
When he emerges at last it is as a wasted, cynical, prematurely old 
roue, mounted on a sorry steed, pursuing his way over a blasted heath, 
the emblem of a wasted, ruined life. And at the last the palace of 
delight vanishes, leaving but a noisome marsh where formerly it stood 
— a graveyard of ruined humanity." 

" Below were men and horses pierced with worms, 
And slowly quickening into lower forms ; 
By shards and scurf of salt, and scum of dross, 
Old plash of ruins and refuse patched with moss. 



At last I heard a voice upon the slope 

Cry to the summit, ' Is there any hope ? ' 

To which an answer peal'd from that high land, 

But in a voice no man could understand." — Tennyson. 



36. If the Son Make You Free, Ye Shall Be Free Indeed. — If 
Jesus makes us free from sin and the love of sin, and thus breaks its 
chains. It takes us from under the lash of this master. The sin is for- 
given, the consequences are removed or transformed, the conscience is 
at ease, the burden has fallen off as from Bunyan's Christian at the 
sight of the cross, the account is settled, the debt is paid. 



The Queen's Ring. — " When Queen Elizabeth was in power on the 
throne of England, she gave to her friend and lover, the Earl of Essex, 
a ring with a precious stone in it, and told him if he should ever be in 
any strait or personal trouble, where the queen's word would be of 
any help, to send up to her the ring, and she would pardon him, even if 



VIII : 32-36 ST. JOHN 257 



his offense, was the crime of high treason. Years 
passed by, the shadows of royal displeasure fell upon 
the earl ; lie became estranged from the queen, and 
was finally condemned to the block for the crime of 
treason. She waited in vain, for the ring never came, 
and the earl was beheaded. But after his death it was 
discovered that he had sent back the all-powerful ring, 
but that an enemy had hidden it from the queen. 
With God's forgiving love there is no enemy in the 
way, save man's own self-will." 



A. ». 29. 

October. 

Feast 0/ 

Tabernacles 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE 

NEAR THE END 

OF THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

Tiie 

Woman 

Taken in 

Adultery. 



The Black Coal in the Sun. — The fact that we have 
sinned still remains, and always will remain. How can the Cain-mark be 
removed from our souls? Will not the black past be forever present, 
forever seen ? One simple illustration has brought comfort. I have seen 
a black coal by the roadside, the very essence of blackness. I have seen 
the sun shine on that black coal, and I could no longer see the blackness 
because of the sun's radiance reflected from it. It was no longer a 
black coal, but a star of glory. So when we get to heaven, the won- 
drous love and wisdom of God and of his Son Jesus in saving such sin- 
ners as we have been, will make ourselves and every one, forget the sin 
in the shining of redeeming love. And even here the splendid fight 
against sin, the glorious victory over it, the good that has been wrought 
in us by overcoming it, will put the sin in the background, and its 
blackness will be hidden by the light of the victory. The dust and 
smoke of the battle will be forgotten in the shining of the morning star, 
the reward of him that overcometh. 



II. Jesus delivers as from the bondage of corroding care and anxieties, 
and the fears that destroy our peace, like the sword of Damocles hang- 
ing by a hair over his head as he sat at the feast. 

The only power that can deliver us is found in the loving From the 
care of our Heavenly Father, revealed in His Son Jesus the Bondage of 
Christ, who has promised that all things shall work together Care. 
for good to those who love Him. The God who sent His Son 
to save us, who holds all power, who controls all the forces of nature, 
who stopped the mouths of lions, who guided His people through the 
sea, will let no real harm come upon His children. 

Library. — Readers of Dickens' Our Mutual Friend will recall the 
family of " the Veneerings," whose outward show and false appearances 

17 



258 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII : 32-36 

burdened them with anxiety and care. Only the truth, living according 
to reality, could make them free. 



III. Jesus Brings Mental Freedom. — Nothing gives so much men- 
tal freedom as the Gospel; for the Gospel conquers prejudice, selfishness, 
falsehood, the great enemies of freedom. The Christian cares more for 
the truth than for life. He freely ranges every field of thought. God 
his Father has made all things, therefore it is His children's privilege to 
study all. The works of God can never contradict, but always explain 
and illustrate the Word of God. And as a fact, under the Gospel is the 
greatest mental freedom this world knows. 

Religion has sometimes been regarded as an enemy of free thought, 
because men have opposed freedom in the name of religion. " Just as 
Madame Roland was about to be beheaded in the Place de 
Revolution, now the Place de la Concorde, she stood upon Madame 
the guillotine platform, and looking at the Statue of Roland 
Liberty, which stood opposite where the Egyptian Obelisk and 
now stands, she bowed before the colossal statue and Liberty, 
exclaimed: ' Oh, Liberty ! how many crimes have been 
committed in thy name ! ' " And then as the axe fell another crime was 
committed in the name of Liberty. Bat it was not liberty that com- 
mitted the crime, and Liberty is just as noble, and as divine, to be pro- 
claimed and enjoyed, as if no crimes had been committed in her name. 



An ecclesiastical body imprisoned Galileo, but he himself was an 
ecclesiastic. 



Christianity brings the atmosphere in which freedom of thought 
flourishes. 



Christianity is the deadly enemy of everything that opposes free 
thought. Where Christianity flourishes there is the most free thought. 



Liberty of Discussion is not only right, but it is the only safe way. 
Powder burned loose on the rock in the open air makes a great blaze 
and smoke, but does little harm. That powder confined in a rock pro- 
duces an earthquake. Whatever nation or church attempts to stifle free 
thought is living on a volcano. It is sitting on the safety valve of the 
engine of progress. The danger is deadness, not free discussion. 



VIII : 32-36 



ST. JOHN 



259 



Cartoon of the Reformation. — ' ' Christ as the 
source of spiritual and intellectual life is admirably 
interpreted by Kaulbaclvs famous cartoon of the 
Reformation, in which Luther with the open Bible in 
his hand is represented as the centre of the intellectual 
and moral awakening- which characterized that cent- 
ury. The cause of Christ has nothing to fear from 
any intellectual life or any light of scientific discovery. 
— Abbott. 



A. ». 29. 

October. 

Feast of 

Tabernacles. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE 
NEAR THE END 
OF THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 

The 
Woman 
Take 11 in 
Adultery* 



— * 



Compare the Statue of Liberty enlightening the world 
in New York harbor, and the Pilgrim monument at 
Plymouth, a statue of Faith holding the Bible in one 
hand, and with the other pointing to heaven, while around the central 
figure are the four symbolic statues of Religion, Education, Liberty and 
Justice. 



IV. Jesus Gives the Freedom of Christian Action. — So far as one 
is a Christian his life is the free, joyous outpouring of his heart, as a 
fountain flows, as a bird sings, as a child plays, as an artist paints, or an 
orator speaks. Laws to him are not restraints, but guides to the way, 
like fences along the road. 



The Bondage of the Grammar and the Freedom of Literature. — 
Just as the child, after it has learned to read through the bondage of 
alphabets and grammars and dictionaries, comes into the glorious liberty 
of literature, and roams through all its fields without thinking of the 
alphabet or grammar; as the musician, after his training in the laws of 
music, comes into the freedom where it is part of his nature to act accord- 
ing to those laws, and soars away beyond them in the delights and ecsta- 
sies of song or oratorio, so the Christian has entered a state far beyond the 
slavery of law, where it is natural and easy for him to do right; for he acts 
from love, not law. He belongs to a higher sphere of action. People 
sometimes imagine that to become a Christian is to enter a bondage, 
because to do the Christian's work with the sinner's feelings would be a 
bondage. But his feelings are changed, so that he loves to do what he 
disliked before. 



This Freedom is Still Imperfect, because the Christian himself is 
imperfect; but he has foretastes of freedom, he knows it as the music 
pupil enjoys music. 



The Liberty Bell. — In Independence Hall at Philadelphia is the 
bell which first rang out to the citizens, who in 1776 were anxiously 



260 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII '.37-41 



37. I know that ye are Abraham's seed ; but ye seek to kill me, because my word 
hath no place in you. 

38. I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye 
have seen with your father. 

39. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto 
them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. 

40. But now ye seek to kill me, a man chat hath told you the truth, which I have 
heard of God : this did not Abraham. 

41. Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of 
fornication ; we have one Father, even God. 



awaiting the results of the discussions in Congress, which was sitting 
with closed doors, that the Declaration of Independence had been 
decided upon. It rang out liberty in full and joyous peals. But fifteen 
years before this, when that bell was made, upon its rim w T ere cast the 
words, " Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants 
thereof." For fifteen long years that bell rang not an actual liberty, but 
the hope of liberty, the prophecy of liberty, the preparation for liberty. 
But at length, on the Fourth of July, 1776, the words written upon it in 
prophecy were rung out a reality, a prophecy fulfilled. So the Christian 
has liberty written upon his soul, — partlj' a fact, partly a prophecy, 
and a hope. But at last to the Christian redeemed from all sin, the 
prophecy is fulfilled, the hope is realized, and he enjoys the perfect 
liberty of the sons of God. 



37. Hath No Place, ov x^P"- — " Rev., hath not free course, or mak- 
eth no way. This rendering is in harmony with vs. 30, 31, concerning 
those who believed, but did not believe on Him, and who showed by 
their angry answer, in vs. 33, that the word of Jesus had made no 
advance in them. For the rendering of the Rev., compare Aris- 
tophanes: irois ovv ov x w P £l Tovp-yov; "How is it that the work makes 
no progress f " (' Peace,' 472). Plutarch, Ix^pei 8id rfjs iroXcus 6 \670s, 
1 the word (or report) spread (or advanced) through the city " (' Caesar,' 
712)."— M. R. Vincent. 



44. Ye Are of Your Father the Devil. — "If children, then 
heirs," has a very wide application. We are children of that from 
which we inherit the character. 



" It is possible among Romanic nations that in one and the same man 
immense depravity in morals and politics may be united with taste, 
amiability in intercourse, aye, even with generosity, and qualities of 



VIII :42-49 



ST. JOHN 



261 



42. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would 
love me: for I proceeded forth aud came from God; neither 
came I of myself, but he sent me. 

43. Why do ye not understand my speech '? even because ye 
cannot hear my word. 

44. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your 
father ye will do : he was a murderer from the beginning, and 
abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When 
he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own : for he is a liar and 
the father of it. 

45. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. 

46. Which of you convinceth me of sin ? And if I say the 
truth, why do ye not believe me? 

47. He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because 
ye are not of God. 

48. Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a 
Samaritan, and hast a devil? 

49. Jesus answered, I have not a devil ; but I honor my Father, and ye do dis- 
honor me. 



A. M>.29. 

October. 

Feast of 

Tabernacles. 

THIRD YEAR. 

AN EPISODE 

NEAR THE END 

OF THE GREAT 

GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

Tlie 

Woman 

Taken in 

Adultery. 



heart which, separately considered, cast a dazzling light upon the 
character." Grimm's Michael Angela, vol. 2, p. 209. 



For He Is a Liau — Mephistopheles in Goethe's "Faust" says : 
" I am the spirit that denies ! 
And justly so ; for all things from the void 
Called forth, deserve to be destroyed ; 
'Twere better, then, were naught created. 
Thus, all which you as sin have rated, — 
Destruction, — aught with evil blent, — 
That is my proper element." 

So later on "Faust admits that the devil has all different kinds of 
Sodom-apples, — gold that melts away in the hand, glory that vanishes 
like a meteor, and pleasure that perishes in possession. But all these 
torments are too insipid for Faust's morbid and mad hankering after 
the luxury of spiritual pain. Show me, he says, (in the lines, ' show 
me the fruit that ere it is plucked, will rot. And trees from which new 
green is daily peeping ' ). The fruit that rots before one can pluck it, 
and trees that fade so quickly as to be every day just putting forth new 
green, only to tantalize one with perpetual promise and perpetual dis- 
appointment." — Note by Chas. T. Brooks. Thus Satan's promises and 
gifts — everything about him is a lie. He is the ideal hypocrite, always 
wearing a mask. He poses as an angel of light. What he does to men 
to-day is well exemplified by what he did in tempting Christ, 



262 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII : 50-59 



50. And I seek not mine own glory : there is one that seeketh and ,udgeth. 

51. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see 
death. 

52. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham 
is dead, and the prophets ; and thou sayest, if a man keep my saying, he shall never 
taste of death. 

53. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets 
are dead; whom makest thou thyself? 

54. Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father 
that honoureth me ; of whom 3^e say, that he is your God : 

55. Yet ye have not known him ; but I know him: and if I should say, I know 
him not, I shall be a liar like unto you : but I know him, and keep his saying. 

56. Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my day : and he saw it, and was glad. 

57. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou 
seen Abraham? 

58. Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, 
I am. 

59. Then took they up stones to cast at him : but Jesus hid himself, and went 
out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. 

51. Shall Never See Death. — In the early ministry of Dr. Chal- 
mers, he had been given to scientific studies, and published a pamphlet 
in which he reflected severely upon such ministers as did not do the 
same. Years after, this pamphlet was cast up to him in the General 
Assembly, to show his inconsistency in then urging what he now dis- 
carded. Having acknowledged himself the author of the pamphlet, he 
added, "Alas, sirs ! so I thought in my ignorance and pride. I have now 
no reserve in declaring that the sentiment was wrong ; and, in giving 
utterance to it, I penned what was outrageously wrong. Strangely 
blinded that I was ! What, sir, is the object of mathematical science ? 
— magnitude, and the proportions of magnitude. But then, sir, I had 
forgotten two magnitudes. 1 thought not of the littleness of time : I 
recklessly thought not of the greatness of eternity." 



IX: I 



ST. JOHN 



263 



CHAPTER IX. 



CHRIST THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 



1 . And as Jesus passed bv, 
from Ms birth. 



he saw a man which was blind 



A. ». 29. 

A Sabbath Day 

in October at 

the Feast of 

Tabernacles. 

JERUSALEM. 

Christ and 

the Blind 

Man. 



1. As Jesus Passed By. — "All the roads leading 
to Jerusalem, like the temple itself, were much fre- 
quented, at the times of the feasts, by beggars, who 
reaped a special harvest from the charity of the pil- 
grims." — Geike. "The beggars in Spain and Italy 
gather about church doors ; and Christian churches 
are perpetually appealed to for aid in works of philanthropy. Beggars 
know that godliness and kindness go together, and they always con- 
gregate where God's worshipers are found." — JR. Glover. 



He Saw a Man Which was Blind. — Blindness is especially frequent 
in the East. While in this country, according to the tables in the 
Encyclopedia Americana, there was (in 1870) one blind person in 1,900 of 
the population, and in Europe one in 1,094 ; there was in China one in 
400, and, according to Dr. Geikie, one in 100 in Egypt. Canon Tristram 
says, " Blindness is common in Palestine to a degree which we in West- 
ern lands can scarcely realize. There is probably no country 
in the world, except Egypt, where this affliction is so prev- Blindness 
alent. At Gaza, for instance, it is said that one third of in the 
the population have lost one or both eyes ; and, from my East. 
own observation in that city, I should unhesitatingly say 
that the statement is not exaggerated. But among these cases it is diffi- 
cult to find any born blind. Congenital blindness is as rare in the East 
as in the West," and hence was certain to attract attention. Dr. Trum- 
bull says, " Whenever you enter any city or any village in the East you 
are likely to find one blind man on one side of the way, and two blind 
men on the other side of the way, and all three of them are sure to call 
on you for help." — H. C. Trumbull, in Studies in Oriental Social Life. 

The causes are (1) the sudden changes in temperature, and light ; (2) 
the intense brightness of the sun, and (3) the fine dust in the air of those 
sandy countries. 



Blind from His Birth. — See on ver. 



264 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IX: I 

Born Blind, or Made Blind. — It is a question whether it is a severer 
calamity to be born blind, or to be deprived of sight after having once 
possessed it. The born blind are doubtless the happier, while the blind 
who have once seen have a wider range of knowledge. So, I have been 
told by the head of an asylum for the feeble minded, that thoce who 
have so completely lost their mind as not to know that they are idiots, 
are happier than those who have mind enough to know that they are 
foolish. 

Milton mourned, — 

' ' Thus with the year 
Seasons return, but not to me returns 
Day, or the s^eet approach of even or morn, 
Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, 
Or flocks or herds, or human face divine ; 
But clouds instead, and ever-during dark 
Surrounds me," etc. — (Paradise Lost, iii. 40-47.) 

Compare this with a blind man Mark Guy Pearse speaks of meeting, 
and wishing to express his sympathy, said to him, " Yours is a great 
affliction, my friend." To my astonishment he got up and turned upon 
me angrily, and denied it utterly. "No, it is not," said he — "not a 
bit." And he groped his way out. His wife hurried in to apologize 
and explain. " Oh, sir, I am so sorry; I meant to have asked you not 
to say anything about my husband's blindness. He always gets so 
angry. You know, he thinks eyes are such stupid things. And he 
can do a great deal more without eyes than many men can do with 
them." That blind man opened my eyes. I watched henceforth most 
carefully, and I think I learned this — that, general'y speaking, a 
blind man is not conscious of his infirmity. 



The Blindness of Sin. — " What was true of the eyes of his body is 
true of the eyes of the sinner's soul. The former could not see the 
natural world, and the latter cannot see the spiritual world. Physical 
blindness is a great evil, but spiritual blindness is far greater. For the 
latter shuts out greater glories; spiritual blindness excludes God himself. 
The man who is physically blind may, like John Milton in his blindness, 
see God and revel in the beauties of the spiritual world ; but the sinner 
is shut out from God and heavenly things. Then, while physical 
blindness is a misfortune, spiritual blindness is a crime." — R. E. 
Meredith. The sinner is blind to his own best good, to the great 
spiritual realities of heaven and hell, to true holiness, to the possibilities 
in his soul, to the joys and glories of a religious life, to the highest 
motives, to eternal life. Thus spiritual blindness narrows, and restricts, 
and darkens the soul. 



IX: 2, 3 



ST. JOHN 



265 



2. Aud his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did siu, 
this man, or his parents, that he was born blind ? 

3. Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his 
parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest 
in him. 



A. ». 29. 

A Sabbath Day 
in October at 
the Feast 0/ 
Tabernacles. 
JERUSALEM. 
Christ aud. 
the Blind 
Jlaii. 



* 



Very much of our growth and progress depends on 
better seeing — seeing more of the meaning of God's 
Word, seeing God, seeing eternal realities, seeing the 
significance of life, seeing opportunities of doing good, seeing better 
ideals and possibilities. Heaven and earth, so full of blessings and 
truths and opportunities and glories, are often invisible to us, as the 
chariots and horses defending Elisha were invisible to his servant. Nor 
do we 

'.' See the helpers God has sent, 

And how life's rugged mountain side 
Is white with many an angel's tent." 



Unconscious of Their Blindness. — Many sinners are like a man 
born blind, who can only in a small degree realize what he has 
missed. They have no ideal with which to compare themselves, and 
so have the misfortune to be comparatively happy in their ignorance. 
They are like a savage in a library, a deaf man at a concert, a blind 
man in a picture gallery, or amid the scenery of Paradise. 



A Living Parable was this blind man to the Jewish nation, blind, 
wretched, poor (Rev. iii. 17), and they did not realize it. 



2. Who Did Sin, This Man or His Parents ? — It was plain the 
man's blindness might have come from his parents' sin, but how could 
it have come from his own sin, since he had been blind from his birth ? 
Could he have sinned before he was born, in some pre-existent state ? 

Compare Wordsworth's Intimations of Immortality, — 

" Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting ; 
The soul that rises with us. our life's Star, 
Hath elsewhere had its setting 
And cometh from afar." 
" Trailing clouds of glory do we come 
From heaven, which is our home." 

Can it be possible that we come trailing clouds of darkness from 
sin in a previous state ? 



266 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IX : 2, 3 

Belief in the Transmigration of Souls. — " But the question, « Who 
did sin, this man, or his parents ? ' implies more than this. There was 
a widespread belief among the Jews, about this period, in the transmi- 
gration of souls from one body to another. It perhaps had not, in our 
Lord's day, assumed a very definite form ; but it was distinctly taught 
by the Essenes, who were a mystical sect among them. It was one of 
the vain speculations which the rabbis were so fond of discussing, and 
which would soon be taken hold of and accepted as a truth by the 
people. " — Canon Tristram. 

Children Suffering for Their Parents. — " It should be remem- 
bered, too, that the belief that parents are punished for wickedness be- 
having deformed children is still current in the East. All congenital 
infirmities were believed, by the Jews, to be special marks of God's dis- 
pleasure. It was accepted without question that the children suffer for 
their parents; as, indeed, we know they do in the enfeebled constitu- 
tions and diseased frames of the offspring of dissolute parents, and in 
the tendency to hereditary ailments, as is also implied in the second 
commandment." — Sunday School Times. 

Library. — " The reader of the Arabian Nights will remember the 
story of the princess whose children were taken from her as they were 
born, and young animals presented to the prince, her husband, in their 
place, and how, at last, the prince put her away, believing that Allah 
must be punishing her for some unknown wickedness." 



Examples. — We are tempted to misjudge both ourselves and others 
in the shadow of afflction or misfortune. 

So it was with Job's friends ; they were sure Job was a bad man, 
because God could not be just and afflict so severely a good man. 

So in Luke 13 : 1-5. The case of those whose blood Pilate mingled 
with the sacrifices, and those on whom the tower of Siloam fell. 



3. Neither Hath This Man Sinned Nor His Parents. — Not that they 
were perfect, and had never done wrong, but the affliction had not 
come as the result or punishment of any particular sin, beyond that of 
others who did not suffer such an affliction. The belief that every 
affliction is the direct punishment for some special sin, and that we can 
judge of the moral and spiritual condition of any person by the calami- 
ties that befall him, or by the outward success and blessings that crown 
his days, tends to several great evils : (1) self-complacency and spiritual 
pride : (2) uncharitable judgment of others ; and (3) hopelessness and 
despair on the part of the afflicted, instead of his learning the lessons 
affliction is intended to teach. 



IX : 2, 3 ST. JOHN 267 



On the other hand there is great comfort to the 
afflicted in the knowledge that special affliction does 
not mean special sin, but is often the loving hand of 
God. 



A. D. 29, 

A Sabbath Day 
in October at 
the Feast of 
Tabernacles. 
JERUSALEM. 
Christ and 
the Blind 
Man. 



The Book of Job. — The book of Job shows there 
are several other reasons why good people may be 
afflicted. (1) It is a test for themselves and for others, 
whether they are really good or not (chaps. 1 and 2). 
It shows that piety and love of God are sincere and 
real. (2) The long discussion, chaps. 3-31, was on the basis that affliction 
was a punishment, as it sometimes is. (3) Chaps. 32-36 show that it is 
meant for discipline, a training in goodness. (4) Chaps. 36-41 show 
that we cannot always tell the reason for affliction, but must trust God's 
love ; and (5) the last chapter shows that in the end it means good; that 
no life of a child of God is a tragedy, but is a final success. 

Reference. — See under xi : 4. 



But that the Works of God Should be Made Manifest in Him. — 
God can make good to grow out of trouble, so that the trouble will 
scarcely be realized because of the glory of God's goodness which 
shines from it. The battle is forgotten in the victory, the loss in the 
gain, the temporal in the spiritual. 

" On my bended knee 

I recognize thy purpose clearly shown ; 
My vision thou hast dimmed, that I may see 
Thyself, thyself alone. 

" Visions come and go, 

Shapes of resplendent beauty round me throng ; 
From angel lips I seem to hear the flow 
Of soft and holy song." 

— Miss E. Lloyd on Milton's Blindness. 



" And when a damp 

Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand 
The Thing became a trumpet, whence he blew 
Soul-animating strains — alas, too few." 

— Wordsworth. 



There are two ways of looking at affliction, — one is to see the sorrow; 
the other is to see through the sorrow, as through a lens, and behold the 
blessing that radiates from it on the other side. 



268 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IX 14, $ 



4. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day : the night cometh, 
when no man can work. 

5. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. 

Library. — Bushnell's Moral Uses of Dark Things. 

Charles Mackay has a poem in which Milton, blind to the blue sky, 
" sees the bowers of Paradise ; " and Beethoven, "Music's Great High 
Priest," deaf to all sound, yet in his soul hears " jubilant hymns and 
lays of love." 

" To blind old Milton's ray less orbs 
A light divine is given, 
And deaf Beethoven hears the hymns 
And harmonies of heaven." 



Exemplified in Lazarus. — So when Lazarus was dying, Jesus said 
to His disciples, " This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of 
God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." His redeeming 
power over death. His wonderful love, were shown not only to Lazarus, 
but to the world throughout the ages. The storm shows in the rainbow 
new glories and powers in the sun, that would otherwise be utterly 
unknown. In the darkness is shown a myriad of heavenly stars never 
seen in the daytime, shining with revelations of the goodness, the great- 
ness, the omnipotence of our Heavenly Father. But for suffering how 
could we know the love of God ? But for darkness how could we know 
the true light? From a pillow of stones many a one has seen the 
heavens opened and from Pisgah's rocky heights, climbed in weariness 
and toil, has come the vision of the promised land. 



4. The Night Cometh, When No Man Can Work. —The day of 
opportunity passes, never to return. Even Christ must do His work of 
redemption, and of teaching, at the time appointed, or it never could 
be done. He might do other works afterwards, but not those. 

11 There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ; 
Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
Is bound in shallows and in miseries." 

" Planting must be done in seedtime. Tending the field must be done 
in growing time. Harvesting must be done when the crop is ripe. We 
must make hay while the sun shines. We must grind our grist while 



IX: 4, 5 ST - JOHN 269 



the water is flowing by the mill. We must teach the 

child while he is the child. We must show love while a. ». 29. 

the loved ones are still with us. We must prepare A Sabbath Day 

for the future while it is still to-day. " — H. C. Trumbull. % e Feast of 

Tabernacles. 
JERUSALEM. 

5. I Am the Light of the World. — The article is tiie mi A A 
wanting in the Greek, I am light to the world, hence, 
" What fitter task for me than this of opening the 
eyes of the blind?" There are two ways of being 
light to men : one is by letting the light shine ; the other is the opening 
the eyes so that they can see the light that is shining. In both ways 
Jesus is the light of the world. He is the sun and the opener of blind 
eyes. It was prophesied that the Messiah should open the eyes of the 
blind (Isa. 29 : 18 , 35 : 5 ; 42 : 7). 



The Light of the Material World is the sun, and the sun is a per- 
petual illustration of what Jesus is doing in the moral world. The rays 
from the sun are of three kinds, differing from one another probably 
only as to the length of the waves of which they are composed. (1) 
Light rays. Nearly all the light we receive comes from the sun. Even 
the moonlight is but reflected sunlight. Even when we are in the 
shade, or in the house, where we cannot see the sun, the light we 
receive is sunlight, dispersed from the particles in the air, reflected 
from all things around us, even the light of our lamps and gas burners 
is but sunlight which has been stored up in the earth. So it is that all 
our spiritual light, from whatever sources it seems to come, is really 
from God. Our white sunlight is really composed of thousands of 
colors, shades and tints, which fill the world with beauty. Such 
variety is in the pure light from Christ, reflected from 
our manifold natures, needs, and circumstances. The light Light, 
drives away darkness, shows the way, reveals heaven, Three Kinds 
goodness, God, the future; it fills the world with beauty of Eays. 
and glory. (2) Heat rays. Nearly all the heat in the world 
comes directly or indirectly from the sun. The fires that warm us and 
are the source of power are from the wood or coal in which the heat 
of the sun has been stored. Such is God's love to us in Jesus Christ, 
bringing cheer, warmth, and blessing. (3) Chemical rays, which act 
upon plants, and cause the movements of life. These rays are in a 
sense the source of life, the instrumentality of life. So Christ is the 
source of our spiritual life. Light, love, and life all come from Him, 
as the bringer of light and truth from the Father of Light, 



270 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IX 14, 5 

Life and Power from the Sun. —"Every tree, plant, and flower 
grows and flourishes by the grace and bounty of the sun. Leaving out 
of account the eruptions of volcanoes and the ebb and flow of the tides, 
every mechanical action on the earth's surface, every manifestation of 
power, organic and inorganic, vital and physical, is produced by the 
sun. Every fire that burns, and every flame that glows, dispenses light 
and heat which originally belonged to the sun. The sun digs the ore 
from our mines, he rolls the iron, he rivets the plates, he boils the water, 
he draws the train. Thunder and lightning are also his transmuted 
strength. And remember this is not poetry, but rigid, mechanical 
truth. Look at the integrated energies of our world. What are they? 
They are all generated by a portion of the sun's energy, which does not 
amount to one two-thousand-three-hundred-millionth of the whole." — 
Tyndall. 

Christ the Light of the World. — " I have seen a picture that I 
used at one time to think a good deal of, but now that I have come to 
look at it more closely I would not put it in my house except I turned 
the face of it to the wall. It represents Christ standing at a door 
knocking, and having a big lantern in his hand. Why, you might as 
well hang up a lantern to the sun as put one into Christ's hand. He is the 
Sun of Righteousness, and it is our privilege to walk in the light of an 
unclouded sun." — D. L. Moody. 



Light and Health. — "We know that light is life-generating and 
health-sustaining ; that without it man becomes blighted, even as the 
parched grass of the field. Take away the light, and both serenity of 
mind and strength of body are gone. The very tissues of the body 
degenerate in utter darkness. Take away the light, and the body 
becomes blanched, etiolated, and wasted. Go to the colliery or the 
dungeon, and you go to the limbo of ghosts ; not to ruddy, healthy men 
and women. I need not refer to the catalogue of diseases belonging to 
darkness." 



Experience of Dr. Nansen, the Arctic explorer, who ' ' found that 
the deep depression of the long Arctie night was more than men could 
bear. Courage, cheerfulness, and hope can live only in the light," so 
that he had to make by electricity " a little sphere of perpetual day." 
Bands and sheets of light were thrown out over the sea, lifted into the 
dark sky, and flooded fields and islands of floating ice. Darkness was 
turned to beauty, and night into day. 



Light as a Curative Agent. —-"Sir James Wy lie, late physician to 
the emperor of Russia, attentively studied the effects of light as a cura- 



IX: 4, 5 ST - J° HN 2 7 l 



fcive agent in the hospital of St. Petersburgh, and he 
discovered that the number of patients who were cured 
in rooms properly lighted was four times that of those 
confined in dark rooms. " — H. L. Hastings. 



A. ». 29. 

A Sabbath Day 

in October at 

the Feast of 

Tabernacles. 

JERUSALEM. 

Christ and 

the Blind 

Man. 



The Sunltght of Jesus' Love. — "A lady being 
treated for rheumatism was advised by her physician 
to sit at a certain window in her house where the warm 
rays of the sun might shine upon her. At length 
the pain was relieved, but she continued to take her daily sun-bath. On 
being asked why she sat there when the pain was all gone, she replied, 
' O, it is so sweet to sit here and feel the warm, soothing influence of 
the sun.' So the disciples of Christ who sit at the feet of Jesus while 
the sunlight of His love beams upon the soul, until the healing power is 
experienced, ever afterwards find delight in communion with Him." — 
Selected. 



Power of Light Over Evil. — "In the Terai forest, along the base 
of the Himalaya Mountains, between the cultivated plains and the foot- 
hills, is a space thirty miles wide, almost entirely destitute of 
human habitation. It is a jungle, a paradise for thousands of elephants, 
tigers, leopards, wolves, and other wild animals. During the daylight 
these hide, and it is safe to go there, and the herdmen venture to take 
their cattle there to graze ; but as soon as the sun declines, they must 
leave. With the darkness all the wild beasts creep forth. No one dares 
venture to pass through or remain there except under the protection of 
a torch. With that you are safe, though in the midst of it and alone. 
I presume that even a child, had he only sense enough to hold up his 
lantern, might walk through it and be safe. They would roar, but 
would not come near nor touch him. Such is the security of light." — 
Dr. Win. Butler, From Boston to Bareilly, p. 183. 



Death from Lack of Light. — In all the department of vegetable, 
animal, moral, and spiritual life, light stands out as the foremost bless^ 
ing which God confers. In physical existence this is especially 
true. Thousands die for lack of light. No vigorous vegetable life, 
no healthful animal life, can long exist without light. The pesti- 
lence " walketh in darkness." Hundreds of dark kitchens, on the north 
sides of houses, are responsible for the deaths that have saddened the 
household, and left the home without a mother. Creeping vines, over- 
shadowing verandas, heavy curtains, closed blinds, all help to increase 
the death-rate, and prevent the recovery of the sick. 



272 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IX : 4, 5 

A Blind Asylum Without Light. — " Some years ago an institution 
for the blind was erected in one of our large towns. The committee put 
their wise heads together, and decided that, as the building was for the 
blind, for those who could not see, there was only a waste of money 
and no reason in going to the expense of windows. Scientific ventila- 
tion and heating were provided, but no windows, because — as the 
committee very logically put it — it was no use in the world providing 
light for those who cannot see. Accordingly, the new blind asylum 
was inaugurated and opened, and the poor sightless patients settled into 
the house. Things did not go well with them, however. They began 
to sicken, one after another ; a great languor fell upon them ; they felt 
always distressed and restless, craving for something, they hardly 
knew what ; and after one or two had died, and all were ill, the com- 
mittee sat on the matter, and resolved to open windows. Then the sun 
poured in, and the white faces recovered their color, and the flagging 
vital energies revived, the depressed spirits recovered, and health and 
rest returned. I think this is not unlike the condition of a vast number 
of people. " — S. Baring Gould. 

Effects of the Sun on Menai Bridge. — It has been noticed by 
observers that the depression of this bridge by trains passing through it, 
is less than that caused by one hour's sunshine. The silent shining of 
the sun has more power over the gigantic girders than the weight of 
the heavy, clattering train. 



Library. — Whittier's Poems. Note 68, p. 427. The love of God is 
an " ocean of light over an ocean of darkness." 
Reference. — See under 1 : 5 and viii. : 12. 



Investigations Concerning Light and Disease. — " Investigations 
are now going on, looking to some practical application of the well- 
known disinfecting properties of light. 

' ' Various species of microbes have been examined to ascertain their 
power of resistance to the sun's rays. For instance, Koch has shown 
that the germ of consumption can withstand the solar rays for only a 
short time. Cholera germs are easily rendered inert under the 
influence of direct sunlight, and other germs are susceptible, in varying 
degrees, to the same influence. 

" Experiments have been made upon fabrics and manufactured articles 
of household use, like furniture, by first impregnating them with germs 
and afterwards exposing them to the direct action of the sunlight. It 
is found that while the sun's rays have a distinct action upon the upper 



IX: 6, 7 ST. JOHN. 273 

* 



6. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and 
made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind 
man with the clay. 

7. And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which 
is by interpretation. Sent.) He went his way therefore, and 
washed, and came seeing. 



A. D. 29. 

A Sabbath Day 

i?i October at 

the Feast of 

Tabernacles. 

JERUSALEM. 

Christ and 

the Blind 

Man. 



layers of stuff, the disinfecting process is somewhat 
retarded in the lower or deeper layers. Objects of a 
dark color are but little affected. 

" Investigators report that direct solar light kills in from one to two 
hours any germs of typhoid fever which may be present in water. 
Even diffused light exerts an appreciable effect in purifying water. In 
fairly clear water the effect has been known to be exerted at a depth of 
more than six feet. 

•' In bodies of water exposed to the rays of the sun a minimum of 
germs is found in the early evening and night hours, and as might have 
been expected, a maximum of the same germs is found in the early part 
of the day." — Youth's Companion. 



Light and Power. — George Stephenson was visiting some friends 
when they observed in the distance a railway train rushing along with 
its line of white steam. "What is the power driving that train?" 
asked Stephenson, "I suppose it is one of your big engines." "But 
what drives the engine ! " " Very likely a Newcastle engineer." " No, 
it is the light of the sun. It is light bottled up in the earth for tens of 
thousands of years, light absorbed by plants being necessary for the 
condensation of carbon during the process of their growth ; and now 
after being buried in the earth for long ages in fields of coal that latent 
light is again brought forth and liberated — made to work, as in that 
locomotive, for great human purposes." — Hurlbufs Notes. 



Oxford Coat of Arms has for its motto, Dominus llluminatio 
Mea. 



The Bartholdi Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World. It is the 
Gospel which, placed on the church for a pedestal, holds up Jesus to 
let all on the stormy sea of life see the light of the world, and safely 
reach the desired haven. 



6. Anointed, lire'xpwrc. — "The spittle was regarded as having a peculiar 
virtue, not only as a remedy for diseases of the eye, but generally as a 
18 



274 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IX : 6, 7 

charm, so that it was employed in incantations. Persius, describing 
an old crone handling an infant, says : ' She takes the babe from the 
cradle, and with her middle finger moistens its forehead and lips with 
spittle to keep away the evil eye ' (Sat. , ii : 32, 33). Tacitus relates how 
one of the common people of Alexandria importuned Vespasian for a 
remedy for his blindness, and prayed him to sprinkle his cheeks and 
the balls of his eyes with the secretion of his mouth (History, iv : 81). 
Pliny says : ' We are to believe that by continually anointing each 
morning with fasting saliva (i. e., before eating), inflammations of the 
eyes are prevented' (Natural History, xxviii., 7)." — Prof. M. R. 
Vincent. 



Healing Power of Saliva. — " The belief in the healing power of 
saliva was universal in the ancient Oriental world, as it still is where- 
ever primitive customs survive. The 'fasting spittle' (the saliva of 
one who has not broken his fast for the day) forms to-day one of the 
most trusted remedies of the folk doctor, the village * wise woman,' as 
it did thousands of years ago. In diseases of the eyes, the ' fasting 
spittle ' is believed to be peculiarly efficacious all over the East ; and 
the same popular remedy is found as far west as Scotland." — Sunday 
School Times. 



7. Go Wash in the Pool of Silo am. — It is noticeable that Christ 
seldom cured without giving the healed one something to do. This was to 
help the man to believe. To have something to do is a great aid to the 
mental and spiritual process of believing. The simple means required 
by Jesus was like Jacob's ladder, a stairway from earth to heaven. 
The means were entirely inadequate, they were only stepping stones to 
a grasp of the real power. We should never despise means, even in 
cases where all the power is divine, as in works of healing, of con- 
version, and of revivals, like that of Pentecost. Even while we use 
means we should not depend on them, but on the Lord, who made the 
means, and is the source of the power that flows through them. 



Compare. — Elisha's command to Naaman to wash seven times in the 
Jordan. 2 Kings 5 : 9-14. 



Symbols. —"Whatever this taught the man himself, it is to us a 
symbol of the truth that light does not come by the instantaneous touch 
of Christ's hand so much as by our faithfully doing His bidding. It 
is He who gives and is the light ; but it does not stream in suddenly 
upon the soul, but comes upon the man who, though blindly, yet faith- 
fully, gropes his way to the place Christ has bid him to, and uses the 



IX : 6, 7 ST. JOHN. 275 

means prescribed by Him. ' He that doeth the will of •*■ 

God, shall know of the doctrine whether it be of a. D. 29. 

God.' " — Prof. MarCUS Dods. 4 Sabbath Day 

in October at 

the Feast of 

Tabernacles. 

" Symbolical also were these means. Sight was re- JERUSALEM, 

stored by clay, made out of the ground with the spittle the Blind 

of Him whose breath had at the first breathed life into Man. 

clay ; and this was then washed away in the pool of *h • 

Siloam, from wdiose waters had been drawn on the 

Feast of Tabernacles that w r hich symbolized the forthpouring of the 

new life by the Spirit." — Prof. Edersheim. 



Why Jesus Put Clay on the Man's Eyes. — I asked an acquaint- 
ance, a French profressor, a friend of mine, a man of a good deal of 
spiritual insight : ' Professor, what is your thought about it ? Why do 
you suppose Jesus Christ anointed the eyes of that man with clay ? ' 
*0h,' said my friend, ' I don't know, sir, unless it made him a little more 
willing to go to ivash.'" Well, now, may not that be a chief reason? 
There is much in it. You know our Lord often puts us into a position 
by His providence wherein, because of our new straits, or discomfort, 
or embarrassment, w T e become willing to take some other needful 
step ; and if it were not for that trial, or sorrow, or humiliation, we 
never would advance a step. Of these providences, often so dark, 
trying and troublous, how often we say, Oh, if God had not sent that 
upon me ! But that very event is the one condition indispensable, on 
which the Lord leads us to take some further step." — H. G. Mabie, D. D. 



Washed and Came Seeing. — " I have recently read of a young lady, 
twenty five years of age, who had been blind from birth. For twenty- 
five years she had lived in midnight darkness. A successful operation 
had been performed, and sight was restored. On a lovely, pure morn- 
ing, the window-blinds were thrown open, and she was allowed to look 
out, for the first time in her life, upon the wondrous workmanship of 
God's hand. She nearly fainted from excess of rapture. Tears of 
more than earthly delight gushed from those eyes which had so long 
been sightless. " Oh, wonderful, wonderful ! " she exclaimed ; " heaven 
surely cannot surpass this." And thus shall it be with you, O happy, 
happy disciple of Jesus, wiien, entering in at the golden gates, the 
splendors of the celestial paradise shall be opened to your view 1" - 
Congregationalist, 



276 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IX: 6, 7 

The Eye Ointment. — "In the Arabian Nights' tales there is a story 
of a remarkable ointment which, if rubbed on the eye, makes one see 
all the riches in the world ; the gold hidden in the mines, the diamonds 
treasured in secret places. Macaulay, the great English writer, said 
that education is like that ointment, opening the eyes to see so much 
more." — Pres. Seth Low. 



Library. — Dante's visit to the regions of the dead, and the contrast 
j he rose from the darkness, where 

"On our view the beautiful hills of heaven 
Dawned through a circular opening in the cave ; 
Thence issuing, we again beheld the stars." 



Jesus the One Who Cures Blindness, physical, mental and moral. 
He opened the eyes of the blind when on earth. His principles obeyed 
would save many from blindness. The spirit of His religion relieves the 
blind, erects blind asylums, furnishes books which the blind can read ; 
and in every way Jesus is the light of the world, opening the eyes of the 
soul. 



What Christianity Enables Blind Men To Do. — It is wonderful 
how great things are done for the blind under the influence of the gos- 
pel. The American Cyclopedia gives a long list, not only of the institu- 
tions for the blind, where they are taught to read and to work and earn 
their living, but of blind men who have become celebrated for philoso- 
phy, poetry, military exploits, music, botany, sculpture, law, divinity, 
as professors of mathematics, travelers, pianists, painters, road sur- 
veyors. 



" M. Edgar Guilbeau, a blind man who founded a museum for the 
blind, was able to ride a horse, swim in the river, go about alone through 
the streets of Paris, and even to explore without a guide 
through the precipitous mountain region about Cauterets, Guilbeau. 
in the Pyrenees. He also wrote and published two volumes 
of poetry — not so remarkable an achievement for a blind person, since 
poetry and blindness are often found in company. 

A still more remarkable blind man was Vidal, the sculptor, who, 
indeed, learned his art while seeing, and lost his sight at the 
age of twenty-eight. He was not discouraged by this Vidal. 
calamity, but became a successful sculptor of animals. 
He was so proud of his triumph over misfortune that he signed all his 
works, "Vidal, aveugle" — Vidal, the blind man, 



IX : 6, 7 ST. JOHN 277 

John Marchant Mundy, an American blind sculp- 
tor, is the author of a statue of Washing- 
Mundy. ton Irving at Tarrytown, N. Y., which 
has been much admired." — Youth's Com- 
panion. 

Witness Helen Keller, deaf, dumb and blind, but at 
the age of sixteen able to pass the Harvard examina- 
tions for Radcliffe College ; witness Milton, the poet 
and statesman ; Kitto, the traveler and author, throw- 
ing much light on the Bible ; Prescott, the historian; Faucett, the blind 
statesman, discussing in Parliament the intricacies of finance and 
conducting the most laborious executive department ; 
Herreshoff, the blind boat- builder, designing the finest Helen 
yachts ; Huber, the blind entomologist, making scientific Keller, 
discoveries. 



A.D. 29. 

A Sabbath Day 

in October at 

the Feast of 

Tabernacles. 

JERUSALEM. 

Christ and 

tlie Blind 

.Man. 



Blessedness op Seeing. —Mr. Ruskin says that " the greatest thing 
a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and to tell 
what it sees in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who 
can think ; but thousands can think for one who can see. To see 
clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion all in one." If one can really 
see, 

" The common sun, the air, the skies, 
To him are opening Paradise." 



Caxton's Motto. — "On a pictured window, near Erasmus the 
morning star of the Reformation, whose troubled life was the outcome 
of the eager age when Greece rose from the dead with the new Testa- 
ment in her hand, stands William Caxton beside his simple printing- 
press. Caxton's motto was ' Fiat Lux ' — ' Let there be light ; ' and 
underneath the window are the four lines written by the late Lord 
Tennyson : 

" His cry was, ' Light, more light while time shall last; ' 
He saw the glories growing on the night, 
But not the shadows which that light should cast, 
Till shadows vanish in the Light of Light. " 

Who shall attempt to estimate the immeasurable results of the art of 
printing ? It has shaken the thrones of tyranny, and quenched the 
bale-fires of the Inquisition. By disseminating the thoughts of those 
in whose souls God has illuminated the light of genius, it may enable 
the humblest soul among us to 



278 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IX:8-l6 



8. H The neighbours therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was 
blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged? 

9. Some said, This is he : others said, He is like him : but he said, I am he. 

10. Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened ? 

11. He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed 
%iine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and 
washed, and I received sight. 

12. Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not. 
13 If They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind. 

14. And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes. 

15. Then agaiu the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He 
said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see. 

16. Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he 
keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such 
miracles? And there was a division among them. 



'Unfold 
The wings within him wrapped, and proudly rise, 
Redeemed from earth, a creature of the skies.'" — Farrar. 

Library. — Whittier's Legend of St. Mark. Krummacher's Parables, 
p. 109, "The Blind Man." Our Lord's Signs in John's Gospel by Dr. J. 
Hutchison, contains the whole story from Tacitus, of Vespasian and 
the blind man. Wendell Phillips' Speeches (vol. 1) page 271, concerning 
the blind man. Dr. Lewis Banks' Dream Life, p. 174, 175, on insight. 
The Encyclopedia Britannica, and the American Encyclopedia, on blind- 
ness. 

Pictures. — Tlie Blind Man Healed, by Carracci, Nicolas Poussin : 
Christ and the Man Born Blind, by Dore ; Christ the Light of the 
World, by Holman Hunt. 



8-16. Illustrate this conflict by the commotion among the clouds and 
the shadows when the sun begins to rise. By the disturbance in the 
ground in the spring when the farmer would plant his garden, and 
prepare for autumn harvests. 

Notice how discussion brought out the truth in clear relief, as the 
sun, shining on the fog, first disturbs and then disperses it. 



16. Keepeth Not the Sabbath Day. — When a fault-finder can find 
no serious fault with a man, he points out the little defects, the minutest 
flaws, and thereby confesses that he sees no great faults. 



IX: 17-25 ST. JOHN 279 



A. D. 29. 

A Sabbath Day 
in October at 
the Feast of 
Tabernacles. 

JERUSALEM. 

Christ and 

the Blind 

Man. 



17. They say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of 
him, that he hath opened thine eyes'? He said, He is a 
prophet. 

18. But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he 
had been blind, and received his sight, until they called the 
parents of him that had received his sight. 

19. And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye 
say was born blind ? how then doth he now see? 

20. His parents answered them and said, We know that this >h — — "i" 
is our son, and that he was born blind: 

21. But by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes, 
we know not: he is of age; ask him : he shall speak for himself. 

22. These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews : for the Jews 
had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be 
put out of the synagogue. 

23. Therefore said his parents, He is of age; ask him. 

24. Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God 
the praise : we know that this man is a sinner. 

25. He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not : one thing 
I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see. 

"An inspector of machinery, or a corrector of faults, does well to 
note defects in order to supply what is lacking. But a man who is try- 
ing to get the most power he can, safely, out of a machine as it stands, 
or who would profit by the best words of a speaker or 
writer, had better not trouble himself over what is lacking. Picking 
It is enough for him to recognize and use what there is. Flaws. 
The average fault-finder gets no good himself, and does no 
good to anybody else. The lowest grade of intellect commonly shows 
itself in the power to see obvious defects. The highest grade evidences 
itself in finding something worth seeing where the average man would 
miss it." 



22. Put Out of the Synagogue, banished from the synagogue, 
excommunicated. ' ' Three kinds of excommunication were recognized, of 
which only the third was the real cutting off, the other two being dis- 
ciplinary. The first, and lightest, was called rebuke, and lasted from 
seven to thirty days. The second was called thrusting out, and lasted for 
thirty days at least, followed by a ' second admonition,' which lasted 
for thirty days more. This could only be pronounced in an assembly of 
ten. It was accompanied by curses, and sometimes proclaimed with the 
blast of the horn. The excommunicated person would not be admitted 
into any assembly of ten men, nor to public prayer. People would 
keep at a distance of four cubits from him, as if he were a leper. 



28o SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IX:i7-25 

Stones were to be cast on his coffin when dead, and mourning for him 
was forbidden. If all else failed, the third, or real excommunication was 
pronounced, the duration of which was indefinite. The man was to be as 
one dead. No intercourse was to be held with him; one must not show 
him the road, and though he might buy the necessaries of life, it was 
forbidden to eat and drink with him. These severer forms appear to 
have been of later introduction, so that the penalty which the blind 
man's parents feared was probably separation from all religious fellow- 
ship, and from ordinary intercourse of life for perhaps thirty days." — 
Prof. Marvin R. Vincent. 

25. One Thing I Know, that, Whereas I Was Blind Now I See. — 
When Jacob heard that his son Joseph was alive, he could not believe 
the good news, till he saw the Egyptian wagons Joseph had sent. Facts 
convinced him. 



Facts are the unanswerable argument in favor of Christianity. The 
lives made better; the souls changed from evil to good; the moral effects 
of revivals; the changes which Christianity has wrought in the world, 
the map of the world to-day, showing everywhere the superiority of 
Christian nations — these are arguments which infidelity cannot answer 
— these are facts, like Jacob's wagons, that should convince men. 
When some one said to Wendell Phillips that the religion of India is as 
good as Christianity, he replied, " The map of India is the answer." 



"I WAS BLIND, BUT NOW I SEE." 

He stood before the Sanhedrim; 

The scowling rabbis gazed at him; 

He recked not of their praise or blame; 

There was no fear, there was no shame 

For one upon whose dazzled eyes 

The whole world poured its vast surprise. 

The open heaven was far too near, 

His first day's light too sweet and clear, 

To let him waste his new-gained ken 

On the hate-clouded face of men. 

And still they questioned, Who art thou? 

What hast thou been? What art thou now? 

Thou art not he that yesterday 

Sat here and begged beside the way, 

For he was blind ? 



IX: I 7 -25 



ST. JOHN 



28l 



And I am he ; 
For I was blind, but now I see. 

He told the story o'er and o'er; 
It was his full heart's only lore; 
A prophet on the Sabbath day 
Had touched his sightless eyes with clay, 
And made him see that had been blind. 
Their words passed by him like the wind 
That raves and howls, but cannot shock 
The hundred-fathom-rooted rock. 



A. ». 29. 

A Sabbath Day 

in October at 

the Feast of 

Tabernacles. 

JERUSALEM. 

Christ and 

the Blind 

Man. 



Their threats and fury all went wide; 
They could not touch his Hebrew pride ; 
Their sneers at Jesus and His band, 
Nameless and homeless in the land, 
Their boasts of Moses and his Lord, 
All could not change him by one word. 

I know not what this man may be, 
Sinner or saint ; but ns for me, 
One thing I know, that I am he 
That once was blind, and now I see. 

They were all doctors of renown, 
The great men of a famous town, 
With deep brows, wrinkled, broad and wise, 
Beneath their wide phylacteries; 
The wisdom of the East was theirs, 
And honor crowned their silver hairs; 
The man they jeered and laughed to scorn 
Was unlearned, poor, and humbly born; 
But he knew better far than they 
What came to him that Sabbath day, 
And what the Christ had done for him 
He knew, and not the Sanhedrim." 

— John Hay. 



Modern Examples. — " The experience of this man is a type of the 
case of many a simple-minded believer in our times. Just imagine 
Jerry McAuley or Bendigo the prize fighter, called up before a council 
of men like Huxley, Darwin, Spencer, Tyndall, and questioned about 
theological speculations. They could not answer them one in a thou- 



282 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XI : 1 7-25 

sand. Tyndall says, ' McAuley, how can you reconcile prayer with 
natural law?' Poor McAuley would have to say, 'I cannot do it., 
'Well,' says Darwin, 'how can you explain Genesis in the light of 
modern science?' Again Jerry gives no answer. ' Come now,' says 
Spencer, ' tell us what you know about Jesus.' Now Jerry's lips open, 
' Once,' he says, * I was a river thief, and a drunkard, and a low-lived 
man. But now I am a sober, honest man, changed in character from 
the crown of my head to the soles of my feet. Jesus wrought this 
change in me in answer to prayer.' 'Well, Bendigo,' says Huxley, 
' what have you to say about this matter?' ' I have much the same tes- 
timony as McAuley. I was a prize-fighter, and had fought twenty-four 
regular battles. I was in prison at one time, and then, by God's power, 
I was made a new man, and have been so ever since.' ' Well, can you 
explain the doctrine of the Trinity ?' ' No; but one thing I do know; 
whereas I was once spiritually blind, now I see.' I know many men in 
New York city who have been either drunkards, or thieves, or bad char- 
acters of one sort or another, who could easily be cornered in an argu- 
ment on the Confession of the Thirty-nine Articles. But if you were 
to ask them, 'What have you experienced in religious things?' they 
could tell a clearer tale than many a theological professor." — A. F. 
Schauffler, D. D. 



32. Since the World Began, etc. — This has been true till within a 
few years. And even now under the light of the Gospel civilization 
there is only one form of blindness from birth that is curable. A lead- 
ing oculist of Boston writes : 

"Congenital blindness is a broad term, and includes numerous 
diseases and malformations of the eyes, the vast majority of which are 
incurable. 

" Perhaps most of these cases are due to disease of the optic nerve, or 
atrophy, as we call it, and these are absolutely incurable. A good many 
others are due to defective development of the optic nerve, choroid and 
retina, and these are hopeless. 

"About the only cases that can be helped are those of congenital cata- 
ract, and these may be operated on successfully, and good vision result, 
if there is no other disease of the eye. That is to say, in a case of cata- 
ract where there is associated disease of the retina or optic nerve, removal 
of cataract would of course do no good. 

" These cases of cataract are practically the only cases of congenital 
blindness that are ever cured. There are a few other rare conditions 
which may be helped, but so rare as not to require mention." — F. 1. 
Proctor, M. D. 



IX: 26-38 



ST. JOHN 



283 



A. D. 29. 

A Sabbath Day 
in October at 
the Feast 0/ 
Tabernacles. 

JERUSALEM. 

Christ and 

the Blind 

_Uan. 



Then said they to him again, What did he to thee? how 
opened he thine eves ? 

-.7. He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did 
not hear : wherefore would ye hear it again ? will ye also be his 
disciples? 

£8. Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; 
but we are Moses' disciples. 

29. We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, 
we know not from whence he is. 

SO. The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a 
marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine 
eves. 

31. Now we know that God heareth not sinners; but if any man be a worshiper 
of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. 

32. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one 
that was born blind. 

33. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. 

34. They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether boin in sins, and dost 
thou teach us? And they cast him out. 

35. Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said 
unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? 

36. He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him ? 

37. And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh 
with thee. 

38. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped Him. 



34. Dost Thou Teach Us ? — Note how many of the greatest and most 
learned men, who have stood foremost in their profession, were never 
educated in the professional schools. 



And They Cast Hem Out. —When Luther's books were publicly- 
burned by order of the Papal Nuncio, the remark made to 
the Emperor Charles' ministers was, ' ; Do you imagine that 
Luther's doctrines are found only in those books that you 
are throwing into the fire ? They are written where you 
cannot reach them, in the hearts of the nation. " — D ' Au- 
bigne, Bk. 6, chap. 11. 



Burning 

Luther's 

Books. 



Sweeping Out the Atlantic Ocean. — Sidney Smith tells us that in 
1824 a great flood set in upon the town of Sid mouth, Eng. The tide 
rose to an incredible height ; the waves rushed in upon the houses, and 
everything was threatened with destruction. In the midst of this sub- 
lime and terrible storm, an old lady who lived upon the beach was seen 
at the door of her house with mop and pattens, trundling her mop and 



284 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IX '.39-41 



39. H And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which 
see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. 

40. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said 
unto him, Are we blind also? 

41. Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin : but now ye 
say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth. 

squeezing out the sea water, and vigorously pushing away the Atlantic 
Ocean. That is the picture of those who are trying to sweep away the 
Bible. Dame Partington could more easily sweep out the ocean. 



Prejudice. — " Dr. Taylor, of Norwich, once said to me, 'Sir, I have 
collated every word in the Hebrew Scriptures seventeen times : and it 
is very strange if the doctrine of the atonement you hold should not 
have been found by me.' I am not surprised at this. I once went to 
light my candle with the extinguisher on it. Now, prejudice from 
education, learning, etc., often proves an extinguisher. It is not enough 
that you bring the candle : you must remove the extinguisher." — G. H. 
Spurgeon. 



38. Lord, I Believe. — Faith is like opening the blinds of the house 
to let in the sunshine that is waiting to enter ; like opening the door to 
receive the guest who is knocking ; like the coupler that joins the car to 
the engine, that so it may use its power ; like the desire for learning that 
makes the world of literature our own. 



40. Are We Blind Also? — A perverted sight, that sees things dis- 
torted or double, is often more misleading than blindness itself. Who 
has not looked in those distorting mirrors which make one seem vastly 
taller or shorter than he actually is. 



The Pharisees were like the unfortunate man in Dante's Inferno, 
who was doomed to carry his light behind him to light others, while 
he himself walked in darkness. 



The Blind that Will Not See. — " I've been in India for many a 
year, and I never saw a native Christian the whole time." So spake 
an English colonel on board a steamer going to Bombay. Some days 
after the same colonel was telling of his hunting experiences, and said 
that thirty tigers had fallen to his rifle. " Did I understand you to say 
thirty, colonel?" asked a missionary at the table. " Yes, sir, thirty," 
replied the officer. "Because," pursued the missionary, explanatorily, 



IX : 39-41 



ST. JOHN 



285 



"I thought perhaps you meant three." "No, sir, 
thirty," this time with emphasis. "Well, now that's 
strange," said the missionary; " I have been in India 
twenty-five years, and I never saw a wild live tiger 
all the while." " Very likely not, sir," said the colonel ; 
" but that's because you didn't know where to look 
for them." "Perhaps it was so," admitted the mis- 
sionary, after a moment or two of apparent reflection ; 
" but may not that be the reason you never saw a 
native convert, as you affirmed the other evening at this table ? : 



A. D. 29. 

A Sabbath Day 
in October at 
the Feast of 
Tabernncles. 

JERUSALEM. 

Christ and 

the Blind 

Man. 



Mrs. Leavitt says that people see missions as one would come to one 
of our schoolhouses after school is out, and declare that no one goes to 
school. 



Blind Man and the Infidel. — "There was a friend of mine 
preaching on Glasgow Green a few years ago, when some one from the 
crowd called out, ' May I speak ? ' After getting permission he pushed 
his way through the crowd, until he was standing on the platform 
beside my friend. 

" ' Friends ! ' he exclaimed, ' I do not believe what this man has been 
talking about. I do not believe in a hell, I do not believe in a judg- 
ment, I do not believe in a God, for 1 never saw any of them." 

" He continued talking in this way for a while, when another voice 
was heard from the crowd, ' May I speak ? ' The infidel sat down, and 
the next man began : 

" ' Friends, you say there is a running river not far from this place, 
the river Clyde. There is no such thing ; it is not true. You tell me that 
there are grass and trees growing around where I now stand. There is 
no such a thing ; that is also untrue. You tell me that there are a 
great many people standing here. Again I say that is not true. There 
is no person standing here save myself. I suppose you wonder what I 
am talking about ; but. friends, I was born blind. I never have seen 
one of you ; and while I talk, it only shows that I am blind, or I would 
not say such things. And you, he said, turning to the infidel, ' the 
more you talk, the more it exposes your own ignorance, because you 
are spiritually blind and cannot see.' Dear friends, try the life that 
Christ lived. There you will find life and love and everlasting joy.' " — 
B. B. Stewart. 



Men Unconscious of the Realities Around Them. — Mr. Tyndall 
says in his book on Sound, that there are persons who never hear the 
peculiar music of insects, which is very clear and plain to others. One 



286 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IX : 39-41 

sits in the midst of an oratorio : his neighbor is in perfect silence. Mr. 
Edwin Cowles, of the Cleveland Leader, says that he is afflicted with 
a deafness somewhat of the nature of color-blindness. He has never 
heard the sound of a bird, or the upper notes of a piano or violin, while 
the lower notes he hears perfectly well. He always believed, till he 
became a man, that the music of a bird was a poetical fiction. So a 
portion of the consonants he never hears, especially the hissing sound 
of "s." And this defective hearing affects his speech. So there are 
many w r ho make themselves deaf to much that God says to man. 
They scarcely ever hear certain truths — God's love, the duty of giving, 
certain promises of God, the higher notes of the Christian's life, they 
no more hear than Mr. Cowles did the song of the birds. And hence 
they are to them but a poetical fiction. And it affects their speech. 



Blind to the Things in Higher Spheres. — The lower orders of 
beings have no powers by which it is possible for them to understand 
many things about those which are higher. For instance, there is 
nothing in a stone to which the sun and rain, which wake life in the 
seed, can appeal. If the stone could be conscious of its existence, it 
could not understand the life in the orders above it. Nor could the 
plant comprehend animal life. The animal can give no glimpse even 
of what makes the highest, happiest, and best in human life. Now 
there is a spiritual life for man, called eternal life, which one who has 
not been born again cannot understand. He is blind to it, as a blind 
person is to the realm of sight, or a deaf person to the kingdom of 
music. See Drummond's Natural Law in the Spiritual World, 
"Eternal Life." 



Voltaire on the Golden Calf. — ' ' Voltaire brought an argument 
to show that the Bible story of the golden calf being dissolved was an 
impossibility — a chemical impossibility. While Voltaire was proving 
that gold could not be held in solution, all the gilders and coiners and 
metallurgists of the earth were holding gold in solution, and there were 
fifty shops in Paris at that time where Voltaire might have seen the 
very process which he pronounced an impossibility." — Talmage. 

Among the people represented in this chapter we find representatives 
of the four kinds of men described in the Arabic proverb: 

' ' Men are four : 
He who knows not, and knows not he knows not, 

He is a fool ; shun him. 
He who knows not, and knows he knows not, 

He is simple ; teach him. « 



IX :39"4i ST - J 0HN 2 %7 

He who knows, and knows not he knows, -i* -^ 

He is asleep ; waken him. A. D. 29. 

He who knows, and knows he knows, a Sabbath Day 

tt . . r. -., , . ,, in October at 

He is wise ; follow him. t j ie p east f 

Tabernacles. 
JERUSALEM. 

The Dark Lantern. A Golden Rule Parable.— Christ and 
"There are some people who, instead of throwing Man. 

light upon a subject, delight in throwing darkness. If ^ ( 

there are any such among the readers of The Golden 

Rule let them read the story of Si Lemon and his dark lantern. 

Si Lemon, be it known, w T as a remarkable genius whose powers of 
invention were shown by the demand for his inventions. One day he 
fell to cogitating thus: ' So they call a dark lantern a dark lantern? It 
is a light lantern instead. A dark lantern should scatter darkness 
rather than light. I will make such a lantern and win a glorious immor- 
tality.' 

And so he did. I cannot give you the secret of the invention, for the 
best of reasons When it was completed, however, it worked to a charm. 
Whenever Si went to open his dark lantern, though in the most glaring 
sunlight, it immediately shed around it the densest darkness. 

A group stood in a picture gallery admiring a famous painting, when 
Si appeared and proceeded to descant upon its beauties, at the same time 
throwing on them the black rays of his lantern that utterly obliterated 
those beauties. 

A company of earnest men and women w T ere talking about the prohi- 
bition of intoxicating liquors, and were reaching an absolutely unani- 
mous conclusion, w T hen Si came along with his dark lantern, and threw 
the company into midnight darkness and into the utmost confusion. 

In a prayer meeting they were discussing the subject of the atone- 
ment, and all there were moved by a sense of God's love, when Si got 
up with his silly contrivance and virtually extinguished every light in 
the room. 

A traveler was lost in the woods one day, and Si, hearing his cries, 
ran to his aid. But he so persistently used his dark lantern that he also 
lost his way, and both of them had to be rescued by searchers from the 
town. 

Chaffing and ridicule did no good. Like all inventors, Si must air his 
contrivance on all possible occasions. One bright, sunny noon, two 
summers ago, he was slowly groping his way home by the aid of his 
strange lantern, when in the artificial darkness he fell over a cliff and 
was killed. His lantern, it is said, perished with him, but I sometimes 
think that some man I meet has picked it up." — Prof. Amos R. Wells 
in Christian Endeavor World. 



288 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IX : 39-4I 

Library. — On the blind that will not see, consult Abp. Whately's 
Annotations on Bacon's Essays, pp. 455, 458. 

" There are persons whom to attempt to convince by even the strong- 
est reasons and most cogent arguments is like King Lear putting a let- 
ter before a man without eyes, and saying, ' Mark but the penning of 
it ! " to which he answers, ' Were all the letters suns I could not see 
one."' . . . 

. . . In dealing with those who have prejudices to be got over, — 
One man perhaps intelligent, and not destitute of candour, but with a 
considerable share of what the phrenologists call the organs of Firm- 
ness, and of Combativeness, will set himself to find objections to your 
proposals or views; and the more you urge him to come to an immedi- 
ate decision on your side, and own himself overcome by your arguments, 
the more resolutely will he maintain his first position, and will at length 
commit himself irrevocably to opposition. Your wisest course, there 
fore, will be, after having laid before him your reasons, to recommend 
him to reflect calmly on them, and so leave him to consult his pillow. 
And it will often happen that he will reason himself into your views. 
Leave the arrow sticking in his prejudice, and it will gradually bleed to 
death. 



Library. — Spurgeon's Sermons in Candles, pp. 112, 113. Some work- 
men fasten a candle to their caps, so as better to see their work. 

" There is an old story of one who had lost his candle, and travelled all 
round his premises searching for it by its own light. It is told as a jest, 
and it must have been a mirthful incident where it happened. I remem- 
ber an old gentleman who could see very little without spectacles, but 
went up and down the house searching for his glasses, looking through 
them all the time." 



Library. — Coleridge's Poems, " The Owlet Atheism." 



Reference. — See under xii. 38-40. 



X:l,2 



ST. JOHN 



289 



CHAPTER X. 



CHRIST THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 



1. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the 
door into the sheepfold, but cliinbeth up some other way, the 
same is a thief and a robber. 

2. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the 
sheep. 



A. ». 29. 

October. 

THIRD YEAR OF 
JESUS' MINISTRY. 

JERUSALEM. 
Tlee Good 
Shepherd. 



2. The Shepherd of the Sheep. — ' ' Try to feel 
how Christ is like a shepherd by imagining what 
the lonely Syrian shepherd must feel towards the helpless things 
which are the companions of his daily life, for whose safety he 
stands in jeopardy every hour, and whose value is measurable to 
him, not by price, but by his own jeopardy, and then we have 
reached some notion of the love which Jesus meant to represent, 
that eternal tenderness which bends over us, — infinitely lower though 
we be in nature, — and knows the name of each, and the trials of each, 
and thinks for each with a separate solicitude, and gave Himself for 
each with a sacrifice as special and a love as personal as if in the whole 
world's wilderness were none other but that one." — F. W. Robertson 
(Sermons, series 2). 



The Need of a Shepherd. — An Eastern pasture is very different 
from the narrow meadows and dyked hillsides w T ith which we are famil- 
iar at home. It is vast and often practically boundless ; it has to be 
extensive, for the greater part of it is barren — in fact the Hebrew word 
for desert and for pasture is the same. The mass of it consists of dry 
stony soil, out of which, for a great part of the year, the sun has sucked 
all life. In this monotony the breaks are few. and consist of paths more 
or less fitful, gorges or thickets where wild beasts lurk, and oases of 
pleasant grass and water. Now in such a landscape of mirage, illusive 
paths, lurking terrors, and infrequent herbage, it is evident that the 
person and character of the shepherd must mean a great deal more to 
the sheep than it means to sheep with us. With us a flock of sheep 
without a shepherd is a common experience : every day we may see them 
left to themselves in a secure field, or scattered over the side of a hill, 
with a far-traveling wire fence to keep them from straying. But I do 
19 



29O SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS X : 3 

3. To him the porter openeth ; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his 
own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. 

not remember ever to have seen in the East a flock of sheep without a 
shepherd. On such a landscape as Judaea he and his character are 
indispensable. He must be vigilant and sleepless, a man who knows 
his ground from horizon to horizon, and who knows every one of his 
sheep : the shelter as well as the guide of his flock, and ready every day 
to risk his life for them." — Prof. Geo. Adam Smith. 



The Power of Shepherding. — " The superintendent of an inebriate 
asylum, writes one, said that in every case of true reform in the insti- 
tution, during the many years in which he had charge of it, there had 
been some one at home — a wife, a mother, a sister, or some other 
friend — loving and praying for the patient. If there w T as no such love 
back of the case, he had no hope for the person under his care. Very 
wisely does the same writer continue : There is hope for the saving of 
the worst and most obdurate boy in a Sunday-school class if he has a 
teacher who loves him, and loves him enough to cling to him in all his 
evil ways, to go after him in all his absences, to endure all discourage- 
ment, the rebuffs, the pain of his weakness, to love him, as Christ loves 
him, to the uttermost. 

"One of the few superintendents of fame in Sunday school work has 
said this : ' An experience of forty years, in several schools, has con- 
vinced me that almost all the conversions occur in the classes of 
teachers who faithfully shepherded their flocks.'" — Rev. Charles H. 
Dodd. 



Christ's Fitness to be Our Shepherd. — " All the meaning, value, 
and comfort of our Lord's shepherding comes from His unique nature. 
In virtue of this, He gives sympathy- and succor. He is both here and 
there — here in our human needs and temptations, there to meet our 
highest spiritual aspirations. A God will not do for man's shepherd. 
He cannot have fellowship with an unveiled God. Daniel, when he 
saw the glorious angel beside the river Hiddekel, was stricken dumb ; 
only when one like a Son of Man touched him did he get into speech 
with God. A man will not do for his shepherding. At best he reflects 
our imperfections. 'A good man is a good fellow but a poor saviour.' 
A Saviour must be God in the reach of his possibilities, man in the 
warmth of his sympathies. Such complexity of nature fits our com- 
plexity of need. The Deity of Christ touches our life at its point of 
supreme and urgent need." — Rev. C. Berry, D. D. 



X: 3 



ST. JOHN 



291 



Jesus Our Shepherd. -"We have to think of a * * 

much closer relationship between the owner and his 
sheep, which were almost part of his family, than any 
with which we are familiar. All animals learn to 
know those who love and protect them, and the 
Eastern shepherd was as much with his sheep as we 
are with the domestic animals." — Ellicott. (1) Jesus 
feeds the sheep, leading them by the still waters and 
into green pastures. (2) He provides a home for them. (3) He defends 
them from all dangers. (4) He rules over them with justice and kind- 
ness. (5) He has a personal love for each one. (6) He will do all these 
for them, even at the expense of His life. 



A. ». 29. 

October. 

THIRD YEAR OF 
JESUS' MINISTRY. 

JERUSALEM. 
The Good 
Shepherd. 



* 



Pictures. — Christ the Good Shepherd, by Plockhorst. W. C. T. Dob 
son, T. Molitor, S. Parker. 



3. The Sheep Hear His Voice. — "As we sat and looked, almost 
spell-bound, the silent hillsides around us were in a moment filled with 
life and sound. The shepherds led their flocks forth from the gates of 
the city. They were in full view, and we watched them and listened 
to them with no little interest. Thousands of sheep and goats were 
there, grouped in dense, confused masses. The shepherds stood together 
until all came out. Then they separated, each shepherd taking a dif- 
ferent path, and uttering, as he advanced, a shrill, peculiar call. The 
sheep heard them. At first the masses swayed and moved, as if shaken 
by some internal convulsion ; then points struck out in the direction 
taken by the shepherds ; these became longer and longer, until the con- 
fused masses were resolved into long, living streams, flowing after their 
leaders." — Porter. 



Separating Flocks by The Voice. — " One fold suffices for the 
flocks of a considerable district. In the morning each shepherd in turn 
calls each member of his flock very rapidly ; for all have their names, 
and know them, or at least distinguish their own keeper's voice." — 
Canon Tristram. 

"A traveler in Greece found three shepherds with flocks of six or 
seven hundred each, all mingled together, but the sheep would answer 
to their names when called by their owner, but not if called by another. 
This traveler experimented with them. He called and the sheep took 
no notice. The shepherd called, and they came. Then he said that the 
sheep knew the shepherd by his dress and not by his voice. But when 
the shepherd exchanged clothes with the traveler, the sheep would not 
obey the strange voice ; but, when in the traveler's dress the shepherd 



292 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS X:3 

called, the sheep came at his bidding. So the Christian knows Christ's 
voice. He knows Him not by church forms, which may be changed, 
but by His eternal nature, — His goodness, and truth, and love, which 
never change." 



He Calleth His Own Sheep by Name. — " Even in this country 
(England) shepherds and shepherds' dogs know each individual sheep ; 
in the East the intimacy between shepherd and sheep is still closer. The 
naming of sheep is a very ancient practice ; see Theocritus, ver. 102." 
— Cambridge Bible. "It is a remarkable fact in Oriental husbandry, 
that in a flock of hundreds or thousands each individual sheep has its 
name, knows it, and is known by it." — Cowles. " Sometimes the name 
is given on account of some peculiarity which is a defect, an infirmity, 
or a deformity. Sometimes it is 'One-eye,' sometimes 'Torn-ear,' some- 
times ' Broken-leg,' but each sheep knows his name. And the shep- 
herd's intimacy grows with each morning's call, and he seems to love 
those sheep which are marked by some peculiarity, and sometimes he 
loves them on account of that peculiarity. The ' voice ' is not merely that 
which gives forth sound, but that which also carries the pulsations of 
the shepherd's heart. " — Dr. Deems. 



An Example from Greece. — " I asked my man if it was usual in 
Greece to give names to the sheep. He informed me that it was, and 
that the sheep obeyed the shepherd when he called them by their names. 
Passing by a flock of sheep I asked the shepherd the same question 
which I had put to my servant, and he gave me the same answer. I then 
bade him call one of his sheep. He did so, and it instantly left its pas- 
turage and its companions and ran up to the hand of the shepherd with 
signs of pleasure and a prompt obedience. It is also true of the sheep 
in this country, that a stranger they will not follow, but will flee from 
him, for they know not the voice of strangers. The shepherd told me 
that many of his sheep were still wild ; that they had not yet learned 
their names, but that by teaching they would all learn them." — Rev. 
John Hartley. 

Calling Men by Name. — The ability to call others by name is a 
great power. " Cyrus is historically, or by historical courtesy, credited 
with the power of repeating the name of every man in his great army." 
Wonderful, says De Quincey, " is the effect upon soldiers of such endur- 
ing and separate remembrance which operates always as the most 
touching kind of flattery." Thus the Sejanus of Johnson, 

" Is heard to court the soldier by his name," 

And to some purpose; witness this outburst of military admiration,— 



X : 3 ST. JOHN 293 

" 2 Trib. He has my lives 

Were they a million, for this only grace. 
Lac. Ay, and to name a man ! 
Lat. As he did me ! 
Min. And me ! 
Lat. Who would not spend his life and fortunes 

To purchase but the look of such a lord." 



A. D. 29. 

October. 

THIRD YEAR OF 
JESUS' MINISTRY. 

JERUSALEM. 
The Good 
Shepherd. 

b * 



' ' Readers of Plutarch will notice ' the often mention that biographer 
makes of the skill shown by some of his heroes, and by them assiduously 
cultivated, of identifying a mass of men individually by name. Not a 
little, by his account it made doubly sure the already assured popu- 
larity of Themistocles, that he succeeded in charging his memory with 
the names of the citizens so as readily to call each Athenian by his own. 
Of Crassus, again, Plutarch tells us that there was not a Roman, how- 
ever mean and insignificant, whom he did not salute, or whose saluta- 
tion he did not return by name.'" — Jacox. 



Library. — Jacox, Secular Annotations, Series 2, p. 327, "To Every 
Star a Name," gives many examples ; Macaulay's History of England, 
Vol. IV., gives the example of Thomas Wharton ; Longfellow repre- 
sents Miles Standish as saying, " And like Caesar, I know the name of 
each of my soldiers." Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies, where he comments 
on the words ' Blind Mouths ' in Milton's Lycidas. 



Jesus' Care for Each Individual. — It is hard to realize that Jesus 
has an individual acquaintance with each of us separately. " Jesus 
takes a living, personal, peculiar interest in each redeemed soul ; bend- 
ing over it continually with infinite tenderness, watching each doubt, 
each fear, each trial, each temptation, each fall, each rising again, each 
conflict, each victory, each defeat, watching each and all with a solici- 
tude as special and particular as if it were upon it that the exclusive 
regards of His loving heart were fixed. No vague, indefinite, indiscrim- 
inate superintendence is that which the great Good Shepherd still exer- 
cises over His flock, but a care that particularizes each separate member 
of it, and descends to the minutest incidents of their history." — Hanna. 



Jesus Knowing Us by Name. — Christ loves us as individuals, not 
merely as a part of humanity. No one but a Divine Saviour, omniscient 
and omnipresent, could know all His disciples by name, and be present 
everywhere to hear their prayers and grant them aid. 



294 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS X:3 

Most generals and leaders know their people only in the mass, so 
many soldiers, so many voters, so many taxpayers, and hence they 
must treat them in the mass. The question is always one of final results, 
not of the success or failure of the individual. But our Heavenly Father 
knows every star by name (Psa. 147:4), and guides and cares for it as 
perfectly as if it were the only one in existence. While the purpose of 
all is gained, the individual is never sacrificed to the whole. He gains 
his best in gaining the best for all. So the Good Shepherd metes out 
our lives to us as individuals. Providence is not merely the ordering of 
general laws, so that what is best for the whole will come to pass, no 
matter who is crushed in the process ; but all things work together for 
the individual good of those that love Him (Rom. 8: 28). 

Jesus knows each individual's want, nature, and circumstances, so 
that He ministers to each exactly what he requires. 

He assigns our duties to us as individuals, giving each the work fitted 
for him to do. — PeloubeVs Select Notes, 1399. 



God So Great, We So Small. — It sometimes seems beyond the pos- 
sibility of belief that the Infinite Creator of the Universe should know 
each one of us, mere atoms on one of the smallest corners of this 
vast creation ; that He who guides the stars, and marshals the hosts of 
Heaven, should care for each of us personally. But such a thought dis- 
honors God. We could not do it because we are weak and limited, but 
He can because He is so great. Jesus, who tells us of His Father, 
assures us that He cares for flowers and the birds. Science tells us that 
each minutest atom of creation, so small that no unaided eye can see it, 
is yet cared for exactly an d perfectly. 



Among so many, can He care? 
Can special love be everywhere ? 
A myriad homes, a myriad ways — 
And God's eye over every place? 

I asked. My soul bethought of this : 
In just that very place of His 
Where He hath put and keepeth you, 
God hath no other thing to do." 

— Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. 



" I have read of a covered bridge in Austria which has, m twelve 
niches, twelve different representations of Christ. In one of them is the 
figure of Christ the carpenter ; in another, Christ the physician, and so 



X : 3 ST - JOHN 295 

on ; and as the poor people pass over the bridge, the ■*• 
artisan offers his devotion to the carpenter, the sick 

man prays to the Good Physician, the 
Pictures in shepherd stands before Christ the Good 
a Bridge. Shepherd. Christ adapts Himself to the 

special needs of every man. His love 
knows no limit. . . . There is no end to His re- 
sources." — Rev. E. W. Moore, in ''South African *** 
Pioneer." (Travelers will remember the covered bridge at Lucerne in 
which are the paintings of the Dance of Death). 



A. I>. 29. 

October. 

THIRD YEAR OF 
JESUS' MINISTRY. 

JERUSALEM. 
The Good 
Slieplierd. 



And Leadeth Them Out. — " He always comes to ' lead,' never to lin- 
ger and stay. If He finds one so woundod and torn and near to death 
as to be unable to follow, He will lay that sheep on His shoulder. If he 
finds a lamb faint and homeless, He will ' carry it in His bosom.' But 
in most instances He gives from the first the strength to follow, and 
expects it to be used. ' He leadeth them out' — ' out' from the whole 
natural sinful life, from all its darkness and misery, into the light and 
joy of acceptance ; 'out' of infantine feebleness into manly strength ; 
' out ' of narrow views into wider ; ' out ' of first experiences into more 
matured ; ' out ' of mistakes and disappointments into wiser ways and 
better fortunes ; ' out ' of dreamy indolence into those activities by 
which alone it can be escaped ; ' out ' of overstrained activity into some 
quiet hour or time of ' refreshing from the presence of the Lord ; ' * out ' 
of besetting sin into waiting duty. Sometimes you think if the Good 
Shepherd were really leading you it would be into other fields than 
those through which you have of late been passing. Be careful here. 
I have seen a shepherd, on a bitter snowy day, gathering all his sheep 
carefully to the windy side of the hill. The silly creatures, left to them- 
selves, would all take the other side ; they would go straight to the 
most dangerous places, to the sheltered spots where the deep snow- 
wreaths form silently in which they would soon find at once a refuge 
and a grave. On such a day the life of some of the sheep depends on 
facing the blast. The shepherd would not let the youngest, he would not 
let the weakest one of the flock, lie down in the shelter. For the very 
love he bears it, 'he calls it by name, and leads it out,' or drives, or car- 
ries — even in such an hour as that — facing the bitter wind and the blind- 
ing snow ! And if we know the personal love of Christ, we shall not be 
so apt to distinguish and select certain special modes for its manifesta- 
tion as alone suitable and proper. One mode will seem to us almost as 
good as another if it be the one that He selects, and we shall hear the 
loving voice in the darkness as well as in the light ; in the roar of the 
wintry storm as in the hush of the summer silence." — A. Raleigh, D. D % 



296 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS X:4 

4. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the 
sheep follow him : for they know his voice. 

So it is said of the divine leading of Esther's life : 

"Illustrious Princesse, had thy chance not beene, 
To be a Captive, thou hadst beene no Queene : 
Such is the Fortune our Misfortune brings ; 

Had we not first bin Slaves, w'ad nere beene Kings " 

— Francis Quarles, Divine Fancies. 



He Goeth Before Them. — " This is a sight which may still be seen 
in the East. With us sheep are driven ; with the Orientals they are led. 
The shepherd goes on before, and the sheep follow after, much as dogs 
follow their master in the West, but without the briskness and vigor of 
dogs. It is not unusual to see the shepherd leading the sheep thus, and 
at the same time carrying upon his shoulder some tender youngling of 
the flock." — Sunday School Times. 



Why He Goeth Before Them. — " The shepherd goes before, not 
merely to point out the way, but to see that it is practicable and safe. 
He is armed in order to defend his charge, and in this he is very coura- 
geous. Many adventures with wild beasts occur, not unlike that 
recounted by David (1 Sam. 1? : 34-36), and in these very mountains ; 
for though there are now no lions here, there are wolves in abundance : 
and leopards and panthers, exceeding fierce, prowl about the wild 
wadies. They not unfrequently attack the flock in the very presence of 
the shepherd, and he must be ready to do battle at a moment's warning. 
Some sheep always keep near the shepherd, and are his special favor- 
ites. Each of them has a name to which it answers joyfully, and the 
kind shepherd is ever distributing to such, choice portions which he 
gathers for that purpose. These are the contented and happy ones." — 
Wm. M. Thompson, in Land and Book. 



The Shepherd Guiding. — " When the shepherd has called his sheep, 
and is satisfied that none is missing, he starts forth for the pasture ; but 
this is continually changing, ' for the hillsides and uncultivated plains 
are practically common lands belonging to the village, and shared by 
all, so that no one can retain the best pasturage day after day.' " — Canon 
Tristram. Jesus thus leads His disciples. His holy spirit will guide 



X:4 ST. JOHN 297 



into all truth. No one is wise enough to choose his 
own life for himself. Hardly any person in old age is 
just where in youth he planned to be, but Jesus knows, 
and He will guide aright all who trust in Him to better 
places than they know or dream. 

' ' I know not the way I am going, 
But well do I know my guide." 



A. D. 29. 

October. 

THIRD YEAR OF 
JESUS' MINISTRY. 

JERUSALEM. 
The Good 
Shepherd. 



Our Good Shepherd Goes Before Us ; He leads us where He would 
have us go ; He is a perfect example of what He would have us to be ; 
He lays no burden upon us that He does not bear Himself ; He has 
gone before us through the gates of death, to lead the way to heaven. 
So every pastor and teacher should go before his flock, an example, a 
leader in every good work, guiding and directing all. He leads them 
to green pastures and beside still waters. He guides them to the best 
things in life, to whatever will enlarge their souls, ennoble their lives, 
develop their capacities, increase their usefulness. Sometimes the best 
pastures and the waters of rest lie beyond deserts and mountains, and 
rough ways lead to them ; still Jesus leads His chosen ones there. 



Shepherd Leading by Carrying a Lamb. — " I have read of a shep- 
herd who tended his flock among the hills. After a time the herbage 
was nipped off close, and the shepherd was anxious to get the sheep up 
higher on to a piece of table land on which there was some good graz- 
ing. The approach was steep, and the poor things did not seem able or 
willing to mount. After trying for a long time to get them up, he hit 
upon a happy expedient. Seizing a lamb, he carried it up the steep 
place, and then threw it on to the table land. It soon stood at the edge 
above, calling for the old sheep. Need I say that not many minutes 
after the mother was up with the lamb." — Rev. Charles Leach. 



And the Sheep Follow Him. — " There are always some sheep that 
stay very close to the shepherd, but there are others that are always 
straggling behind, and so always getting into trouble. Sometimes they 
are torn by the dogs, and sometimes they lose their way." — Mrs. J. R. 
Mott. 



Following Jesus is the proof that we belong to His flock, if we follow 
in the footsteps of the Master, turning neither to the right hand nor the 
left, whatever temptations may allure us one side. 



29S SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS X:4 

Library. — Rev. Mr. Sheldon's story, In His Steps. Dr. A. J. Gor- 
don's How Christ Came to Church 



For They Know His Voice. — "Nothing is more wonderful to a 
tourist in Palestine than this fact. We often paused and tested nearly 
every one of these particulars on the occasion of the two visits to the 
Holy Land that our party made. We used to notice hundreds or thou- 
sands of sheep all rushing together at one watering-place ; the shep- 
herds seemed to be quite unconcerned as to the mingling of their 
animals, although none of these were branded or marked. For a half 
hour they would rustle and wrestle for the water ; then the men would 
go off to a little distance, and each by himself, putting his hand to his 
mouth, would begin a gentle, continuous, musical call ; and then there 
would be seen a startled uplifting of a head here and there, then a strug- 
gle of disentanglement and persistent push, and then a direct course 
taken toward the leader. Thus each shepherd called off his own ; his 
sheep knew where to go." — C. S. Robinson, D. D. 



Knowing by the Voice. — "There are, it may be, so many kinds of 
voices in the world, and none of them is without signification " (1 
Cor. xiv : 10). " They knew the voice of the young man." (Judges 
xviii : ;>). " These passages of Scripture are in a sense applicable in giv- 
ing prominence to an incident in my experience which I will relate. 
On my way home to the ' States' from California in 1850. I chanced to 
spend a few hours in the little seaport town of Realegio, in Nicaragua, 
Central America ; and while at the hotel there, a man came in con- 
versing in a language I did not understand (Spanish), whose voice 
attracted my attention ; after listening a moment, I turned about — for 
my back was towards him — and, approaching him, said, ' Is not your 

name H ? ' He said it was. I knew him by his voice, so like his 

brothers', sons of a venerable minister in my native town up among the 
hills of New England. I had never before seen him, and had only cas- 
ually heard in years gone past that there was such a person. He was 
a noble-looking and I judged a noble-hearted man." — G. B. R. in Hie 
Outlook. The voice is that which changes least as we grow old. Such 
incidents as that given above are not uncommon. 



An Experiment With Sheep and the Voice. — "Some time ago, a 
gentleman tells us, he was traveling in Syria, and stopped to watch 
some shepherds who were watering their flock at a well. All the sheep 
mixed together, and to a stranger's eye they appeared as one. Presently 
one shepherd arose from the well side and called out 4 Men-ah ! ' — the 
Arabic word for ' follow me ! ' 



X : 5, 6 ST. JOHN 299 



5. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from 
him ; for they know not the voice of strangers. 

6. This parable spake Jesus unto them; but they understood 
not what things they were which he spake unto them. 



A. D. 29. 

October. 

THIRD YEAR OF 
JESUS' MINISTRY. 

JERUSALEM. 

Tlie Good 

Shepherd. 



'•To the American's surprise about thirty sheep, 
separating themselves from the others, followed the 
man up the hill. The second shepherd cried, ' Men-ah ! 
Men-ah ! ' and away went the second flock. The American was very 
much astonished at this, and seeing the third shepherd gathering up his 
crook and a few scattering dates that had fallen from the palm under 
which he had rested, he stepped up to him and said, « Would your sheep 
follow me if I called them?' The man shook his head. 

"Give me your cloak and crook, and let me try ! The shepherd did so, 
even taking off his dirty turban and twisting it around the American's 
head, with a grin of amusement, and then he stood and watched the 
American call, 'Men-ah! Men-ah!' until he was quite hoarse. The 
sheep stood lazily blinking at him, basking in the sunshine, but not one 
moved a step. 

"'Do they never follow any one but you?' asked the American of 
the shepherd. 

"'Only when the sheep is sick, and the silly creature follows any 
one,' replied the shepherd. 

" So the American and you and I learn this lesson : That if any of 
Christ's sheep cannot hear His voice, or distinguish it from the world, 
the flesh, and the devil, it is because that sheep is sick. Yes, soul -sick, 
sinful, back-sliding, and, 0, so foolish ! Is that what troubles you ? 
Have you got tired of prayer and Bible reading, and working for Jesus ? 
O, poor, sick soul, come back to your Shepherd to-day ; let your prayer 
be this, ' Cause me to hear Thy voice : ' and when you hear it again, 
keep close to His side." — Herald of Life. 



They Know His Voice. — "A good illustration of this, in the case of 
other domestic animals, is given by Barrow in his story of his journeys 
in Africa. The quotation given below is translated from Rosenmiiller's 
German ; ' Toward sundown the whole plain was covered with cattle, 
which upon a certain sign, consisting of a quite peculiar piping tone 
made by the mouth, came together from all quarters. Upon another 
piping, the milk kine separated themselves from the herd, and came 
together to be milked. ... In the morning, the herds go off to the 
pastures upon another similar signal. Indeed, the Kaffirs and their 
cattle seem to understand each other perfectly.'" — Sunday School 
Times. 



300 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS X : 7, 8 

7. Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily I say unto you, I am the door 
of the sheep. 

8. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers : but the sheep did not 
hear them. 

5. A Stranger They Will Not Follow. — " Let any passing trav- 
eler try, as I have often done, to imitate the shepherd's voice. At once 
the sheep will pause, toss up their heads, and then scamper off to 
huddle close to the shepherd, so completely do they realize their 
dependence on him." — Canon Tristram. 

" This is true to the letter. Thej r are so tame and so trained that they 
follow their keeper with the utmost docility. He leads them forth from 
the fold, or from their houses in the villages, just where he pleases. 
The shepherd calls sharply from time to time to remind them of bis 
presence. They know his voice, and follow on ; but if a stranger call, 
they stop short, lift up their heads in alarm, and if it is repeated, they 
turn and flee, because they know not the voice of a stranger. This is 
not the fanciful costume of a parable ; it is simple fact. I have made 
the experiment repeatedly." — Wm. M. Thompson. 

" We tested that to our foolish hearts' content. It was curious to 
watch the men, who seemed wondering what we could be trying to do 
with their sheep. Sometimes we made impressions on the animals 
sufficiently strong to get ourselves noticed ; but they only appeared 
frightened, and generally ended with a stampede away from us, in a 
course direct for their old friend on the hillside.' , — C. S. Robinson, 
D.D. 



7. I Am the Door of the Sheep. — " Jesus spoke to them yet more 
plainly, and said, Through me men may find life. I am to their souls 
the way of life as the little gate is the entrance to the fold ; through 
Me they may know the way of life to their souls, and have every need 
supplied." — S. S. Times. 



The Door is an emblem (1) of hospitality, of welcome, of entrance 
into the place where treasures are kept, where food and pleasures 
abound ; as the door to a home, to a safe deposit vault, to a society, to 
a library, to a church, to heaven. (2) It is an emblem of exclusion of 
those things which do harm ; as thieves, robbers, wild beasts. The 
door to heaven, while it welcomes all who are willing to have the spirit 
of heaven, also shuts out everything that defileth, and whatsoever 
worketh abomination or maketh a lie. See Rev. 21 : 25-27 ; 22 : 14, 15, 

Note how beautiful are the doors of many of the European cathedrals, 
and especially the bronze doors of the Baptistry at Florence, which 



X:9-u ST. JOHN 301 



9. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be 
saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. 

10. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to 
destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they 
might have it more abundantly. 

11. I am the good shepherd : the good shepherd giveth his 
life for the sheep. 



A. D.29. 

October. 

THIRD YEAR OF 
JESUS' MINISTRY. 

JERUSALEM. 
The Good 
Shepherd. 

* * 



have been called beautiful enough to be the gates of Paradise, So also 
the beautiful gate of the temple and the pearly gates of the New 
Jerusalem. 

Library. — See Christ's names and titles, such as " I am the door," in 
Farrar's Christ in Art. 



8. Thieves and Robbers were first all who claimed to be the Messiah, 
but without the authorization of God, without the works and character 
of the true Messiah, but with some selfish purpose of aggrandizement 
at the expense of the sheep they ought to feed. They robbed instead 
of feeding. Therefore these terms included all who claimed to be 
teachers and leaders of the people, without the truth of God, without 
being filled with the divine purpose of helping and saving men, but 
seeking wealth, honor, rank, at the expense of the flock they ought to 
have fed. 

Library. — See Milton's Lycidas, and Ruskin's interpretation of it in 
Sesame and Lilies, as a characterization of false spiritual shepherds, 
blind mouths to whom 

" The hungry sheep look up and are not fed, 
But swollen with wind and the rank mist they draw, 
Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread." 

Blind Mouths. — "Those two monosyllables express the precisely 
accurate contraries of right character in the two great offices of the 
church— those of bishop and pastor. 

"A bishop means a person who sees. A pastor means one who feeds. 
The most unbishoply character a man can have is, therefore, to be blind. 
The most unpastoral is, instead of feeding, to want to be fed, — to be a 
mouth." — Rushin. 



Library. — See Dr. Dennis' Christian Missions and Social Progress 
(Revell), which shows that nearly all non-Christian rulers exploit their 
people, act as if the people were made for them, and not they to serv§ 
the people, 



302 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS X : g-l I 

9. And Shall Go In and Out. — Once belonging to the flock and the 
fold, he can go in and out under the care of the Shepherd and every- 
where be safe, and have freedom of activity for all his powers. Exer- 
cise is as needful to the Christian as food. Wherever there is help, or 
blessing, or wider vision, through all the realms of knowledge, litera- 
ture, and science ; through the most heavenly transfiguration expe- 
riences, through the trials that purify, the battles that ennoble by vic- 
tories, there the sheep may go under the guidance and protection of the 
Good Shepherd. 

We must go in to learn to trust, to rest, before we can go out to do 
good to others, or to learn best the outer world and make outward things 
a part of the kingdom. 



10. Life More Abundantly. — God supplies us at birth with a cer- 
tain amount of animal vitality, and with certain faculties tending to 
various kinds and degrees of good in the universe, and by means of 
these we are to draw our life from the treasury of the creation and 
from God. Our success during our stay on the earth is to be measured 
by the amount and kind of life we derive from the fountains that flow 
from the Infinite fullness. Life may be increased. Even in the physical 
department we may have it 'more abundantly' by obeying the plain 
conditions. We are not fated to a short allowance or a. fixed amount, 
but are endowed with the power of growing, and are tempted by a 
large, unmeasured possibility. Through exercise, and the proper choice 
and economy of food, we not only keep well, but we enlarge the stream 
of vitality. And the law by which a man purifies and refreshes the 
currents of his blood, makes the eye clear, the tendons taut, the nerves 
calm, the chest capacious, the step elastic, and knots the muscles by 
discipline to such sturdiness that, though once they were tired with a 
slight burden, now they will lift nearly half -a- ton, is a law that can be 
traced up into the mental and moral regions, and be seen to 
govern the spirit as well as the frame. 1. Life may be in- Story of 
creased. Many try to increase it by intensity. There is a Oriental 
story of an Eastern monarch who had been a noble ruler, Monarch, 
but who received a message from an oracle that he was to 
live only twelve years more. He instantly resolved that he would turn 
these to the most account, and double his life in spite of destiny. He 
fitted up his palace gorgeously. He denied himself no form of pleasure. 
His magnificent gardens were brilliantly lighted from sunset to sunrise, 
so that darkness was never experienced within the circuit of his estate ; 
so that, whenever he was awake, the stream of pleasure was ever flow- 
ing, and even the sound of revelry was never still. Thus he determined 
to outwit the oracle by living nearly twenty-four years in twelve. But 



X:9-H ST. JOHN 303 



A. 1>. 29. 

October. 

THIRD YEAR OF 
JESns' MINISTRY. 

JERUSALEM. 
The Good 
Shepherd. 



at the end of six years he died. The oracle foreknew 
and made allowance for his cunning scheme. No 
doubt, on his death-bed, the monarch saw the rigor 
and despotism of the laws of life, with which it is vain 
for finite art and will to wrestle. The story is true in 
the spirit, though it may be fable in its details. What 
is gained in intensity is lost in time. 2. There is another 
kind of life that we may call broad. Life is increased 
in this way by putting out more faculties into communication with nature 
and society. In fact, it is by the unfolding of faculties that all additions 
to life are received. Each one of our powers is a receptacle for some 
element of the Divine good, but it is not like a goblet, and it does not 
receive good as poured into a vase ; its method is rather that of a seed. 
3. Life may be deepened, made rich, not only by broader areas of cul- 
ture, but by priceless mines beneath the soil." — Sermon by T. Starr 
King. 

11. Giveth His Life for the Sheep. — "In Palestine, at any moment, 
sheep are liable to be swept away by some mountain torrent or carried 
off by hill-robbers, or torn by wolves. At any moment their protector 
may have to save them by personal hazard. The shepherd king tells us 
how, in defense of his father's flock, he slew a lion and a bear. Every 
hour of the shepherd's life is a risk. Pitiless showers, driving snows, 
long hours of thirst, — all this he must endure, if the flock is to be kept 
at all. So Jesus gave His life for the sheep. If the shepherd had not 
sacrificed Himself, the sheep must have been the sacrifice. The suffer- 
ing of Christ was death. But the suffering from which Fie redeemed us 
by death was more terrible than death. The pit into which He descended 
was the grave. The pit in which we should have been lost forever was 
the pit of selfishness and despair." — F. W. Robertson. lie leaves 
heaven, His home, and becomes man; teaches, suffers, dies, that He may 
find His lost ones. 

" But none of the ransomed ever knew 

How deep were the waters crossed, 
Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through 

Ere He found His sheep that was lost. 
Out in the desert He heard its cry. — 

Sick and helpless, and ready to die. 

But all through the mountains, thunder-riven, 

And up from the rocky steep, 
There arose a glad cry to the gate of heaven, 

' Eejoice ! I have found my sheep ! ' 



304 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS X 1 2-1 5 



12. But he that is a hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are 
not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth ; and the wolf 
catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. 

13. The hireling fleeth, because he is a hireling, and careth not for the sheep, 

14. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. 

15. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my 
life for the sheep. 



And the angels echoed around the throne. 
' Rejoice for the Lord brings back His own ! 



Jesus Gave His Life for His Sheep.— " He died that they might be 
saved from their great enemy, sin. He laid down His life for the sheep 
all through His ministry. He that will save others cannot save Him- 
self. I lay down my life for — that is, instead of — the sheep. This is 
the enunciation of a general principle by which every good shepherd can 
be distinguished from the hireling ; for every good shepherd is ready to 
sacrifice his life for his sheep because they are his. The good shepherd 
may or may not be called on to die for his sheep ; but he always lays 
down his life for them. To lay down the life is to consecrate it, devote 
it to the flock ; as a mother, who is always ready to die for her children, 
but who, living or dying, belongs to her children, and surrenders her- 
self to them. So we ought also to lay down our lives for the brethren 
(1 John 3: 16), though comparatively few are ever called on to die for 
them." — Lyman Abbott, D. D. 



Library. — The Bishop in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. 



12. But He That is a Hireling. — Not every one that receives pay is 
a hireling, but one who serves only for pay, without love for the work, 
or care for the employer. He is a hireling who is seeking his own 
interests, his reputation, his pecuniary gains, more than the good of the 
flock. He sacrifices the sheep for himself, not himself for the sheep. 
The true pastor never works for his pay, but the people support him so 
that he may give all his time to the care of the sheep. 



Seeth the Wolf Coming. — " Seeth (0€<op€i.). Very graphic. His 
gaze is fixed with the fascination of terror on the approaching wolf. 
Compare Dante ; 



X: 12-15 ST. JOHN 305 
" A lion's aspect which appeared to me. "P 



And a she- wolf, that with all hungerings 

Seemed to be laden with her meagreness, 

And many folk has caused to live forlorn ! 

She brought upon me so much heaviness, 

With the affright that from her aspect 

came, 

That I the hope relinquished of the height." 
— Inferno 1 : 45. 54. Prof. M. R. Vincent, in Word Stories. 



A. B. 29. 

October. 

THIRD YEAR OF 
JESLS' MINISTRY. 

JERUSALEM. 
Tlie Good 
Sbeplierd. 



14, 15. Read these two verses as pointed in the R. V., with a comma 
instead of a period after " mine," — " and I know mine own, and mine 
own know me, even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father." 
His insight is perfect. He knows our secret thoughts and hopes, our 
temptations, what is good for us, the effect of each influence upon our 
characters and lives, what discipline is good for us. Thus He can take 
perfect care of the sheep. 



14. And Am Known of Mine. — " A man in India was accused of 
stealing a sheep. He was brought before the judge, and the supposed 
owner of the sheep was present. Both claimed the sheep, and had wit- 
nesses to prove their claims ; so it was not easy to decide to whom the 
sheep belonged. Knowing the habits of the shepherds and the sheep, 
the judge ordered the animal to be brought into court, and sent one of 
the two men into another room, while he told the other to call the sheep, 
and see whether it would come to him. But the poor sheep, not know- 
ing ' the voice of a stranger,' would not go to him. In the meantime 
the other man in the adjoining room, growing impatient, 
gave a kind of a ' chuck,' upon which the sheep bounded away 
toward him at once. This ' chuck ' was the way in which be had been 
used to call the sheep, and it was at once decided that he was the real 
owner." — Baxendale. 



The Sheep Who Know Their Shepherd. — " Some sheep always 
keep near the shepherd, and are his special favorites. Each of them 
has a name, to which it answers joyfully, and the kind shepherd is ever 
distributing to such, choice portions which he gathers for that purpose. 
These are the contented and happy ones. They are in no danger of get- 
ting lost or into mischief, nor do wild beasts or thieves come near them. 
The great body, however, are mere worldlings, intent upon their mere 
pleasures or selfish interests. They run from bush to bush, searching 

m 



306 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS X : l6, 1 7 



16. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, 
and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. 

17. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might 
take it again. 

for variety or delicacies, and only now and then lift their heads to see 
where the shepherd is, or, rather where the general flock is, lest they 
get so far away as to occasion a remark in their little community, or 
rebuke from their keeper. Others, again, are restless and discontented, 
jumping into everybody's field, climbing into bushes, and even into 
leaning trees, whence they often fall and break their limbs. These 
cost the good shepherd incessant trouble." — Wm. M. Tlwmpson, D. D., 
in." The Land and the Booh." 1 



16. Fold (av\i}s). "From a«, to blow, hence, strictly, a place open to 
the air ; an uncovered, space inclosed by a wall. So Homer, of the 
cave of the Cyclops : Odyssey x : 185. — Vincent. 



One Fold (\xi* iroi|i.vT|). "The A. V. entirely ignores the distinction 
between avXrj, fold, and itoijavt], flock." It is not onefold, but one flock; 
not one enclosure, but all the sheep, wherever they are, belong to one 
shepherd, are parts of one great flock. 



"Other Sheep I Have.Which Are Not of This Fold. "— ' ' The wealthy 
owners of sheep have many flocks in different parts of the country under 
the care of separate shepherds. Each shepherd leads the flock of which 
he has charge to the locality where he expects to find pasturage ; and 
when this is exhausted, he moves on with the flock to some other place 
where herbage and water may be expected. In this way the flocks 
sometime travel considerable distance ; and it is perhaps in this sense 
that the Talmudic definition of the ' extent of pasture,' as sixteen 
miles, is to be understood. At special seasons, or at times previously 
appointed, these under shepherds, who have been wandering all over 
the country with their flocks, return to the place where their employer 
resides, and so for a time there is one flock again, instead of many." 
— Sunday School Times. 



Wesley's Vision — " John Wesley once, in the visions of the night, 
found himself, as he thought, at the gates of hell. He knocked and 
asked who were within. ' Are there any Roman Catholics here ? ' he 
asked. ' Yes,' was (lie answer. 'Any Church of England men? ' 'Yes.' 
' Any Presbyterians? 1 'Yes.' 'Any Independents?' 'Yes.' 'Any 
Baptists?' 'Yes.' ' Any Wesleyans here?' 'Yes.' Disappointed and 



X: 1 8-24 ST « J 0HN 3°7 



A. D. 29. 

October. 

THIRD YEAR OF 
JESUS' MINISTRY. 

JERUSALEM. 
The Good 
Shepherd. 

* 



18. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. 
I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. 
This commandment have I received of my Father. 

19. 1 There was a division therefore again among the Jews 
for these sayings. 

20. And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; 
why hear ye him? 

21. Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a 
devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind? 

22. T[ And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. 

23. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. 

24. Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou 
make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. 

dismayed, especially at the last reply, he turned his steps upward and 
found himself at the gates of Paradise, and he repeated the same ques- 
tions. ' Any Wesley ans here ? ' 'No.' 'Any Presbyterians?' 'No.' 
'Any Church of England men?' 'No.' 'Any Roman Catholics? 
'No.' 'Any Baptists ? ' 'No.' ' Any Independents?' 'No.' 'Whom 
have you here, then ? ' he asked in astonishment. 'We know noth- 
ing here,' was the reply, 'of any of those names you have mentioned. 
The only name of which we know anything here is Christian. We 
all are Christians are, and of these we have a great multitude which 
no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and 
tongues.' " — From the , ' Quiver." 
Reference. — " One Flock," see under 17:21. 



18. No Man Taketh it From Me, Etc. — The atonement has been 
called an unjust and mean doctrine, because it allows another to suffer 
in our stead. But look at it a moment. For God to force any innocent 
person to suffer for the sins of another would be unjust in the extreme. 
For us to demand His life to save our own would be unutterably mean 
and criminal. But for one voluntarily to risk his life for another is 
simply heroic. This is the very essence of heroism. When the Greeks 
on their way to besiege Troy were becalmed at Aulis by Diana, the 
priest Calchas told them that the only way to appease the offended 
goddess, and gain the victory was to sacrifice to Diana, 
Iphigenia, the beautiful daughter of King Agamemnon. Ipbigenia. 
And these brave men of old are said to have taken her by 
strategy and force, and brought this innocent girl to the altar to slay 
her in their stead. This sacrifice (though she was rescued) 
was unworthy of them, was mean and unjust in the Self- 
extreme. But whenever any persons have offered them- Sacrifice. 



308 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS X : 25-3 1 

25. Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do- in 
my Father's name, they bear witness of me. 

26. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. 

27. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me ; 

28. And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall 
any man pluck them out of my hand. 

29. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all ; and no man is able to 
pluck them out of my Father's hand. 

30. I and my Father are one. 

31. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. 

selves, as Horatius and his comrades at the bridge of Rome, or 
the nobles of Calais to Henry the Sixth, the sacrifice was the height 
of heroism, the exact opposite of meanness. 

" During a plague in Marseilles, the physicians decided that nothing 
could be done to save the people, unless a victim could be dissected, and 
the nature of the disease learned. But who would do this ? Dr. Guyon 
rose and said he would do it. He wrote his will, bade his family fare- 
well, entered the hospital, made the dissection and examination, wrote 
out the results, and in a few hours was dead. But now the physicians 
could treat the disease, and the plague was stayed.'' To have forced 
Dr. Guyon to do what he did. would have been unspeakable selfishness 
and sin ; but for him voluntarily to endanger his life for others was 
worthy of a disciple of the suffering Saviour. This is the soul of great- 
ness and goodness in all ages. We did not compel Christ, God did not 
compel Him, but He freely offered Himself for us, and the only meanness 
or injustice is not to love Him and serve Him for it with all our hearts. 



Library. — The hymn, " The Ninety and Nine." 



19. There Was a Division Among Them. — In the old Greek legend 
of the founding of Thebes, Cadmus had to slay the dragon which 
guarded the site. He took the dragon's teeth and sowed them in the 
field like wheat, when from each one sprang up an armed giant. A 
great army of giants surrounded him. But Cadmus took a rock and 
threw it among them, and struck one of them on the breast. Then 
instead of slaying him they went to fighting one another. And they 
slew one another till only one tall giant remained, and he 
became the helper of Cadmus in carrying stones for the Cadmus 
walls of the city of Thebes he began to build. So it is wise and the 
to let the enemies of Christianity light one another : one Dragon's 
tears down what another builds up. Many theories arose Teeth. 



X : 3 2 ~4 2 



ST. JOHN 



309 



32. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed 
you from my Father ; for which of those works do ye stone 



A. ». 29. 

October. 

THIRD YEAR OF 
JESUS' MINISTRY. 

JERUSALEM. 
The Good 
Shepherd. 



33. The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work, we 
stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, 
being a man, makest thyself God. 

34. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, 
Ye are gods? 

35. If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God 
came, and the Scripture cannot be broken ; 

36. Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, 
Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? 

37. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. 

38. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works; that ye may know, 
and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him. 

39. Therefore they sought again to take him ; but he escaped out of their hand, 

40. And went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first bap- 
tized ; and there he abode. 

41. And many resorted unto him, and said, John did no miracle: but all things 
that John spake of this man were true. 

42. Aud many believed on him there. 



about geology, and unbelieving men urged them against the bible. 
But theory slew theory, till now geology is one of the best friends 
of the bible. Astronomy, divine evolution, the buried cities of the 
past, the mummies of Egypt, and the stone libraries of Assyria are 
all contributing toward the building of the great temple of Christianity. 
But always after the battle is over there is left some solid, settled truth 
which never fails to help build the city of our God. 



32. Good Works (koAo,). ' ' Beautiful, noble works, adapted to call 
forth admiration and respect." 



For Which of These Works (8id irotov avi-wv Kp-yov). "Lit., for 
what kind of a work of these. This qualitative force of irotov is not to be 
lost sight of, though it is impossible to render it accurately without 
paraphrasing. Jesus does not mean, as the A. V. and Rev. imply, ' for 
which one of these works,' but ' what is the character of that particular 
work among all these for which you stone me?' The me, closing the 
sentence, is emphatic." — M. R. Vincent, in Word Studies. 



3H> 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 



XI : 1-3 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE RAISING OF LAZARUS. 



1. Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, 
the town of Mary and her sister Martha. 

2. (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, 
and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was 
sick). 

3. Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, 
he whom thou lovest is sick. 



A. D. 30. 

Jan. or Feb. 

JESUS AT 

BETHA- 

BARA. 

LAZARUS AT 

BETHANY. 

Sickness of 

Lazarus. 



Pictures. — The Raising of Lazarus, by Piombo *" 
(Nat. Gal., London), Giotto (Arena Chapel, Padua), Dore. 



The Family at Bethany. — Jesus had no home of His own, but He 
sometimes rested at the homes of His friends. The family over whose 
door was written in real but invisible words, The Family Whom Jesus 
Loved (as Dr. F. E. Clark has around his front porch "Welcome" in 
thirteen different languages), dwelt at Bethany on the Mount of Olives, 
which is now called El-Azarieh, or Lazarieh, from Lazarus (the Greek 
form of the Hebrew Eleazer). 



Prof. E. H. Plumptre, in his Lazarus and Other Poems, suggests that 
there is strong reason for believing that Lazarus was one of the Jewish 
rulers ; that he was the rich young ruler (Mark 10 : 17-22) 
whom Jesus loved, and whom He bade to sell all he had and Plumptre's 
follow Him, but who at the time refused to do it ; that he 
heard the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, which had 
a strong effect upon him ; and that finally he was brought to 
obey Jesus and take up his cross through the experience of death, where 
he felt not the blessedness of the righteous, but the evil of sin. 



Poem on 
Lazarus. 



Jesus in the Home. — There are many whose presence in our homes 
would be a perpetual benediction and inspiration. We know several 
who would realize what the young man advertised for, — a boarding 
place where his good Christian example would be sufficient remunera- 
tion. But none can bring such blessing to the home as Jesus, with His 
teaching, His example, His sympathy, His love His, counsel. We can 



XI: 1-3 ST. JOHN 311 

have Jesus in our hearts and homes if we invite and 
welcome Him, put away all that is distasteful and 
opposed to Him, cherish all that He loves listen to His 
words, obey Him, love Him with all our hearts. What 
a change His presence would make in some families ! 

Library. — Dr. A. J. Gordon's experience in How 
Christ Came to Church (Bap. Pub. Soc). What would 
be the effect should we realize ' If Christ Came to Our 
Home?' Compare Stead's If Christ Came to Chicago, 
and E. E. Hale's If Jesus Came to Boston. 



A. O. 30. 

Jan. or Feb. 

JESUS AT 

BETHA- 

BARA. 

LAZARUS AT 

BETHANY. 

Sickness of 

Lazarus. 



2. It Was that Mary Which Anointed the Lord With Ointment. 
— Note the pleasant memories connected with the name Mary of 
Bethany here, and in Luke 10 : 42 : like the fact referred to in one of our 
poets, that the jar in which the attar of roses has been kept retains its 
fragrance, — 

"You may break, you may shatter the vase if you will, 
But the scent of the roses will hang round it still." 

How many people are remembered, and go down in history, on 
account of some single deed they have done ; this one deed being the 
source of their chief influence for good or for bad in after generations, 
one poem like Grey's Elegy ; one hymn ; one act of heroism ; some- 
times one wrong act, like Jonah's running away from God ; or Judas' 
betraying his Master with a kiss. 



3. Behold He Whom Thou Lovest is Sick. —Even those whom 
God loves best sometimes fall into sickness and trouble. 

'It is said that gardeners sometimes, when they would bring a rose 
to richer flowering, deprive it for a season of light and moisture. 
Silent and dark it stands, dropping one fading leaf after another, and 
seemingly going down patiently to death. But when every leaf is 
dropped, and the plant stands stripped to the utmost, a new life is even 
then working in the buds, from which shall spring a tender foliage 
and a brighter wealth of flowers. So, often, in celestial gardening, 
every leaf of earthly joy must drop before a new and divine bloom visits 
the soul." — Mrs. Stowe. 

Library. — Blanco White's sonnet, "Mysterious Night." Bryant's 
Library of Poetry and Song, p. 415. 

Longfellow in his Hyperion compares the setting of a great hope 
to the setting of the sun. Though the darkness deepens, yet in time 
the stars of heaven shine out one by one. 



312 SUCGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XI: 4-6 



4. When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the 
glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. 

5. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister and Lazarus. 

6. When he bad heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the 
same place where he was. 

Pruning Rose Bushes for Better Roses. —The cultivator of roses 
must often prune the vines and train them carefully and strictly, if he 
would cause them to bear the most beautiful roses. I once asked a 
man who raised the most beautiful roses I ever saw, why it was that 
the roses in his greenhouse were so much more beautiful than those in 
other greenhouses. His reply was, " Because I love them so." But 
none were more strict in pruning, or more bountiful in caring for their 
every want. 



The stars, which are invisible as we stand in the light, are seen when 
one is in the darkness of a well or cave. 



Affliction— Uses of. — "There is a mountain in Scotland called 
Cairngorm — literally, ' the blue mountain ' — and on it are found 
valuable rock crystals. The way in which the Highlanders 
gather the stones called Cairngorms is this : when there is Cairn- 
a sun-burst after a violent shower, they go and look along gorms. 
the whole brow of the mountain for certain sparkling 
spots ; the shower has washed away the loose earth, the sunbeams 
light upon and are reflected from the stones, and thus they are detected. 
It is just God's way of bringing forth His own — His ' jewels.' Affliction 
lays them bare." — Dr. dimming. 



Honey from Bitter Flowers. — " If nature teach bees not only to 
gather honey out of sweet flowers, but out of bitter, shall not grace 
teach us to draw, even out of the bitterest condition, something to 
better our souls ? " — Spiritual Honey from Natural Hives. 



4. Sickness for the Glory of God. — " In the following illustra- 
tion used by a ministerial acquaintance when suffering under the 
pressure of domestic bereavement and sorrow, one scarcely knows 
which to admire most — the tenderness and depth of the piety which 
the sentiment exhibits, or the delicacy and beauty of the illustration 



XI :4-6 ST. JOHN 3 J 3 



which is employed : ' I feel that repeated afflictions •%• 
come, not as lightnings on the scathed tree, blasting it 
vet more, but as the strokes of the sculptor on the 
marble block, forming it into the image of life and 
loveliness. Let but the Divine presence be felt, and 
no lot is hard. Let me but see His hand, and no event 
is unwelcome.'" — J. J. Dowling, D D. 
Reference. — See under ix. 3. 



A. ». 30. 

Jan. or Feb. 

JESUS AT 

BETHA- 

BARA. 

LAZARUS AT 

BETHANY. 

Sickness of 

Lazarus. 



6. When He Heard — He Abode Still in the Same Place. — In 
the charming little booklet, Expectation Corner, Adam Slowman was 
led into the Lord's treasure houses, and among many other wonders 
there revealed to him was the " Delayed Blessings Office," 
where God kept certain things prayed for until the wise Delayed 
time came to send them. " It takes a long time for some Blessings 
pensioners to learn that delays are ?iot denials. . . . Ah, Office, 
there are secrets of love and wisdom in the ' Delayed Bless- 
ings Department ' which are little dreamt of. Men would pluck their 
mercies green when the Lord would have them ripe." TJierefore will 
the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you (Isa. 30 : 18). 



" God's clock never goes too fast or too slow, and is so constructed 
that, when the shadow on the dial shows that ' the time of the promise 
draws nigh,' it sounds, as an alarum, a warning to the messengers to be 
ready at once for the delivery of the stored blessings, which, the 
moment that 'the fulness of the time is come,' are sent forth from the 
gates. It's not always that the petitioners' doors are found open ; for 
delayed blessings too often come as a surprise even to the Lord's con- 
stant remembrancers,. When they are still found waiting, and expect- 
ing after long tarrying, they receive a • Great is thy faith ! be it unto 
thee even as thou wilt ." which they are not likely to forget." — Rev. W. 
Gannett. 



" God's plans, like lilies pure and white, unfold, 
We must not tear the close-shut leaves apart ; 
Time will reveal the calyxes of gold." 



Examples. — Every life of faith is full of examples of the value 
of delayed blessings. Young men take short cuts into the ministry, or 
into business, and their whole life is injured, its influence diminishes, 
its success is marred and belittled. A young man enters college too 



314 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XI: 4-6 

young, or half prepared, and he loses much of the value of its course. 
Any player of chess notices the picture of life presented by those who 
hasten too quickly to the checkmate, to find defeat. 



Instance from the Life of Paul. — Paul's later life presents a very 
vivid and comfortable example of the value of delayed blessings. Paul 
was anxious to go to Rome, the centre of civilization, to preach the Gos- 
pel. Doubtless he had his plans, but instead of carrying them out, he 
was attacked by the Jews, and thrown into prison for two years. But 
this put him under the protection of the Roman power. It gave him a 
needed rest. It sent him to Rome at the expense of the Roman govern- 
ment, and protected him from interference by the Jews while in Rome. 
Even the delay by the shipwreck prepared the way for his better treat- 
ment at Rome. 



The Hermit's Prayer for Olive Oil. — " The story is that a good 
old hermit said to himself, one day, ' I want oil to burn through the 
night; I will plant an olive-tree in front of my cave.' So he planted a 
young sapling, and watched it carefully. One day he was sure that it 
needed rain. He prayed God to send the rain. I dare say he prayed as 
though he must have it. A shower came. He prayed, then for sun- 
shine; and suddenly the clouds parted, and the sun shone bright. 

" Again he wanted frost, to make the tree strong. So he prayed, and 
soon the tree hung heavy with icicles. But the next time that the 
hermit looked at it, behold, it was dead ! 

" ' Why is this ? ' he cried bitterly. 

" He went in haste to a brother hermit. 

" ' How is it,' he cried, ' that your olive-tree lives? I planted one, and 
asked God to send upon it rain, and sunshine, and the frost. They all 
came, yet the tree died.' 

" ' Ah,' replied the old man, ' no wonder that your tree is dead ! You 
ought to have asked God to send the rain, the sunshine, and the frost, 
if they were best. God made the tree, and He knows far better than 
you or I when it needs those things.' " — S. S. Times. 



Love's Delays. — " Jesus delayed going sooner because he loved them. 
There is much that is mysterious in God's dealings with us; but a great 
comfort all through them comes from the assurance of God's love. 

" Imagine the letters of a sentence to be so enormous in size that a 
man could only make out one of them at a time. In that case, he could 
not read, i. e., collect the letters together and discover the sense of the 
combination. So it is with providence in the conduct of the world at 



XI: 4-6 ST. JOHN 315 

large during the lapse of centuries. It is only the *t 
ivhole that is intelligible." — From Fenelon. 

" God's help is always sure, His methods seldom 

guessed; 
Delay will make our pleasure sure, surprise will 

give it zest; 
His wisdom is sublime, His heart profoundly kind : 
God never is before His time, and never is behind." . 



A. 1>. 30. 

Jan. or Feb. 

JESUS AT 

BETHA- 

BARA. 

LAZARUS AT 

BETHANY. 

Sickness of 

Lazarus. 



" A thing to be thankful for is that God so sifts our prayers that only 
the right ones are answered, If all the foolish ones were granted we 
would have unspeakable suffering." 



And if, through patient toil, we reach the land 
Where tired feet, with sandals loose, may rest, 

Where we shall clearly know and understand, 
I think that we will say, ' God knew the best,'" 



The Emperor Moth. — God's time is the best. " I kept for nearly a 
year the flask-shaped cocoon of an emperor moth. It is very peculiar 
in its construction. A narrow opening is left in the neck of the flask, 
through which the perfect insect forces its way, so that a forsaken 
cocoon is as entire as one still tenanted, no rupture of the interlacing 
fibres having taken place. The great disproportion between the means 
of egress and the size of the imprisoned insect makes one wonder how 
the exit is ever accomplished at all — and it never is without great labor 
and difficulty. It is supposed that the pressure to which the moth's 
body is subjected in passing through such a narrow opening is a pro- 
vision of nature for forcing the juices into the vessels of the wings, 
these being less developed at the period of emerging from the chrysalis 
than they are in other insects. I happened to witness the first efforts 
of my prisoned moth to escape from its long confinement. During a 
whole forenoon, from time to time, I watched it, patiently striving and 
struggling to get out. It never seemed able to get beyond a certain 
point, and at last my patience was exhausted. I thought I was wiser 
and more compassionate than its Maker, and I resolved to give it a help- 
ing hand. With the point of my scissors I snipped the confining threads 
to make the exit just a very little easier, and lo ! immediately, and with 
perfect ease, out crawled my moth, dragging a huge swollen body and 
little shrivelled wings. In vain I watched to see that marvellous pro- 
cess of expansion in which these silently and swiftly develop before 



316 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XI:7-II 



7. Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judea again. 

8. His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee ; and 
goest thou thither again? 

9. Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in 
the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. 

10. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him. 

11. These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus 
sleepeth ; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. 



one's eyes; and as I traced the exquisite spots and markings of divers 
colors which were all there in miniature, I longed to see these assume 
their due proportions, and the creature appear in all its perfect 
beauty, as it is, in truth, one of the loveliest of its kind. But I looked 
in vain. My false tenderness had proved its ruin. It never was any- 
thing but a stunted abortion, crawling painfully through that brief life 
which it should have spent flying through the air on rainbow wings. 
The lesson I got that day has often stood me in good stead." — Family 
Treasury. 



A Fly on the Cathedral Pillar. — " There is a striking passage in 
which a great philosopher, the famous Bishop Berkeley, describes the 
thought which occurred to him of the inscrutable schemes of Providence, 
as he saw in St. Paul's Cathedral a fly moving on one of the pillars. 
He sa} T s : ' It required some comprehension in the eye of an intelli- 
gent spectator to take in at one view the various parts of the building 
in order to observe their symmetry and design. But to the fly, whose 
prospect was confined to a little part of one of the stones of a single 
pillar, the joint beauty of the whole or the use of its distant parts, was 
inconspicuous. To that limited view, the small irregularities on the 
surface of the hewnstone seemed to be so many deformed rocks and pre- 
cipices.' That fly on the pillar, of which the philosopher spoke, is the 
likeness of each human being as he creeps along the vast pillars which 
support the universe." — Dean Stanley. 

Reference. — See on 6:20. 



11. Our Friend Lazarus Sleepeth. — The Christian name for a 
burial ground is cemetery, " sleeping place." 

"Sleep is a death; oh, make me try, 
By sleeping, what it is to die ! 
And as gently lay my head 
On my grave as now my bed. 



XI: 7-1 1 ST. JOHN 317 

Howe'er I rest, great God, let ine 
Awake again at last with Thee. 



These are my drowsy days ; in vain 
I do now wake to sleep again ; 
O come that hour when I shall never 
Sleep again, but wake forever." 

— Religio Medici. 



A. D. 30. 

Jan. or Feb. 
BETHANY. 
Death of 
Lazarus. 



The Christian's Death, a Sleep.— Jesus taught His disciples a lesson 
about death by comparing it to sleep. Because (1) in both, the person 
is unconscious of the worldly activities around him. (2) The soul con- 
tinues to live, while the body is unconscious. (3) There is to be an 
awaking to new and fresh life. The very expression implies immor- 
tality. 

'• A man goes to bed willingly and cheerfully, because he believes he 
shall rise again the next morning, and be renewed in his strength. 
Confidence in the resurrection would make us go to the grave as cheer- 
fully as we go to our beds." 

' * The blest are like the stars by day, 
Withdrawn from mortal eye, 
But not extinct : they hold their way 
In glory through the sky." —Montgomery. 



Death Does Not Destroy the Continuity of Existence. — " Christ 
brings us this further message: Life is not fragmentary. There is no 
break. You see the river flowing till it reaches the cleft in the moun- 
tain, but it goes on. You see your companion entering the dark cavern 
of the mountain-side. It is but a tunnel: presently he will emerge into- 
a fairer, brighter land beyond. Life is like a song ; and the singer goes 
from us, and the song grows dimmer and more indistinct, and fades 
away; but the singer has not stopped his singing, though our eyes can- 
not follow the singer into the unknown whither he has gone. Do you 

remember that beautiful statue in the Metropolitan Museum of Art 

'The First Death,' — Eve holding in her arms the form of her beloved 
first-born son, and looking down with pained and anxious questioning 
into the closed eyes ? Oh, if there could but then have been some one 
to touch her on the shoulder and say, This is not death, but is only 
slumber; if there could but have been some voice that could have 
spoken in her ears, so that, suddenly rising out of this semblance of 
sleep, he could have looked up into the mother's eyes, how the joy and 



318 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XI : J-l I 

exhilaration would have come back into her heart again ! And when 
we take our best beloved and hold them to our arms, and look down 
into the eyes that are closed, and look down into the face that is marble, 
there is a hand that touches our shoulder, and there is a voice that 
speaks in our ears, ' She is not dead, but sleepeth.' " — Lyman Abbott, D. D. 



Library. — Krummacher's Parables, "Death and Sleep," p. 54; 
" Lazarus," p. 70. Mrs. Browning's Poems, " So He Giveth His Beloved 
Sleep;" and "A Sleeping Child." 

Classics. — "Homer personifies a dualism of ' Sleep and Death,' two 
twins of winged race, of matchless swiftness, but of silent pace." He 
pictures Aphrodite 

" Speeding to Lemnos o'er the rolling deep, 
To seek the cave of Death's half brother Sleep." — Jacox. 



The Sleeping Child. — Mrs. Browning has a poem on a sleeping child, 
tired out with playing, and slumbering on the floor, a part of which 
runs thus : 

" And God knows, who sees us twain, child at childish leisure, 
I am near as tired of pain, as you seem of pleasure ; 
Very soon, too, by His grace gently wrapped around me, 
Shall I show as calm a face, shall I sleep as soundly ! 
Differing in this, that you clasp your playthings sleeping, 
While my hand shall drop the few given to my keeping. 
Differing in this that I sleeping shall be colder, 
And in waking presently, brighter to beholder. 
Say not Good Night, but in some brighter clime 
Bid me Good Morning." 



Library. — John Bigelow's Mystery of Sleep (Harper), whose motto 
is " The night-time of the body is the day-time of the soul." 

Longfellow's Poems, " Resignation," — " She is not dead, the child of 
our affection." 

Jacox' Secular Annotations, vol. 1, " Sleep and Death." 



The Well in Paul's Dungeon. — "A strange fact is noticeable, that 
in the hard floor of the lower dungeon of the prison pointed out as that of 
St. Paul in Rome, there is a beautiful fountain of clear crystal water, 
which doubtless was as fresh in Paul's day as it is now, — a symbol full 
of instruction. There never was a dungeon for God's servants which 
was without its well of consolation." — Golden Rule. 



XI : 12-27 ST. JOHN 319 



A. D. 30. 

Jan. or Feb. 

BETHANY. 
Resurrec- 
tion of 

Lazarus. 



12. Theu said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. 

13. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death : but they thought that 
he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. 

14. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. 

15. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not (here, to 
the intent ye may believe ; nevertheless let us go unto him. 

16. Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his 
fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him. 

17. Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave for four days 
already. 

18. Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off: 

19. And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning 
their brother. 

20. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met 
him ; but Mary sat stilt in the house. 

21. Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had 
not died. 

22. But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it 
thee. 

23. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. 

24. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection nl 
the last day. 

25. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in 
me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: 

26. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou 
this? 

27. She saith unto him, Yea, Lord : I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of 
God, which should come into the world. 



15 I Am Glad I Was Not There. 

" It accords beautifully with divine propriety that we read of no one 
having died while the Prince of life was present. If you suppose that 
death could not, in the presence of Jesus, have assailed Lazarus, the 
language of the two sisters, vss. 21, 32, attains loftier meaning ; and the 
Lord's joy at His own absence is explained." — Bengel. 

Darkness cannot exist in the presence of the light. 



21. If Thou Hadst Been Here My Brother Had Not Died. 
" But oh, for the touch of a vanished hand, 
And the sound of a voice that is still ! " — Tennyson. 



Library. - E. E. Hale's Christmas in a Palace, the story of "Hands 
Off." 



33. Thy Brother Shall Rise Agaii*. 



320 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XI : 1 2-27 

Lowell thus alludes to his fair young wife in his exquisite Palinode : 

" If earth another grave must bear, 
Yet heaven hath won a sweeter strain, 
And something whispers my despair, 
That from an Orient chamber there 
Floats down, ' We meet again.' " 



A Visiting Angel. — If some angel from a distant star should come 
to this world in the winter, and we should show him the seeds and roots 
and bulbs which were to bloom the next spring, it would be hard for 
him, with no experience, to believe that such beautiful flowers could 
come from such unsightly objects. Then we could take him to a green- 
house and show him specimens, facts, which prove what would come 
from seeds and bulbs. So the resurrection of Jesus was a specimen of 
the resurrection, an incontrovertible proof of what is possible to us all. 



The seed-corn in the furrow thrown 
Is with the hope of harvest sown." 

— Translated from Karl Gerok. 



But all lost things are in the angel's keeping, Love ; 

No past is dead for us but only sleeping, Love ; 

The years of heaven will all earth's little pain make good." 

— Helen Hunt. 



Compare Hamlet's Soliloquy in the Castle of Elsinore : 

"To die ; to sleep ;- 
To sleep ! perchance to dream ! ay there's the rub. 



Analogical Argument for the Resurrection.— The analogical 
argument of Butler's Analogy, part 1, chap. 1, is thus beautifully 
amplified by Rev. Albert Barnes in his Introductory Essay : 

"That the soul and body should be united again, and constitute a 
single being, is said to be without a parallel in fact in other things, to 
divest it of its inherent improbability. Now let us suppose for a 
moment that, endued with our present powers of thought, we had been 
united to bodies of far feebler frame and much more slender dimen- 
sions than we now inhabit. Suppose that our spirits had been doomed 
to inhabit the body of a crawling reptile, scarce an inch in length, 
prone on the earth, and doomed to draw out our little length to obtain 
locomotion from day to day, and scarce noticeable by the mighty beings 



XI: 28-32 ST. JOHN 321 



A. ». 30. 

Jan. or Feb. 
BETHANY. 
Resurrec- 
tion of 
Lazarus. 



28. And when she had so said, she went her way, and called 
Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth 
for thee. 

2i». As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came 
unto him. 

30. Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in 
that place where Martha met him. 

31. The Jews then which were with her in the house, and 

comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed 
her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there. 

32. Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at 
his feet, saying uuto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. 

above us. Suppose in that lowly condition, as we contemplated the 
certainty of our speedy dissolution, we should look upon our kindred 
reptiles, the partners of our cares, and should see their strength gradu- 
ally waste, their faculties grow dim, their bodies become chill in death. 
Suppose now it should be revealed to us, that those bodies should 
undergo a transformation ; that at no great distance of time they should 
start up into new being ; that in their narrow graves there should be 
seen the evidence of returning life; and that these same deformed, 
prone, and decaying frames, should be clothed with the beauty of 
gaudy colors, be instinct with life, leave the earth, soar at pleasure in a 
new element, take their rank in a new order of beings, be divested of 
all that was offensive and loathsome in their old abode in the eyes of 
other beings ; and be completely dissociated from all the plans, habits, 
relations and feelings of their former lowly condition. We ask, 
whether against this supposition there would not lie all the objections 
which have ever been alleged against the doctrine of a resurrection and 
a future state? Yet the world has long been familiar with changes of 
this character. The changes which animal nature undergoes to pro- 
duce the gay colors of the butterfly, have as much antecedent improba- 
bility as those pertaining to the predicted resurrection, and for aught 
that we can see, are improbabilities of precisely the same nature." — 
Albert Barnes. 



27. I Believe that Thou Art the Christ. — " Handel died on Good 
Friday, April 14, 1759, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, and on 
his monument are written the words, I know that my Redeemer liveth, 
which he had set to most beautiful music, and had asked to have writ- 
ten upon his tomb." — Tales from Westminster Abbey. 



31. To Weep There. — tva K\av<rr), to wail, to weep aloud, according 
to the Jewish custom, in marked contrast with the word "wept "in 
21 



322 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XI : 33-36 

33. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping;, and the Jews also weeping which 
came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, 

34. And said, Where have ye laid hiui? They said unto him, Lord, come and 
see. 

35. Jesus wept. 

36. Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him ! 

ver. 35, where Jesus wept silently. "When one dies, the women 
around gather quickly to the house of the dead, to comfort the bereaved. 
Much of the ' comforting ' consists in simply weeping with them. 
Sometimes it happens that the nearer relatives (or one of 
them) have suffered such a shock that grief refuses to Oriental 
express itself in the usual way. In such cases the belief is Mourning, 
that of the maidens in Tennyson's ' Princess: ' ' She must 
weep, or she will die. ' Then are brought women skilled in singing sad 
songs and extemporizing moving couplets in praise of the departed, 
thus, if possible, to open the fountains of tears. For many months the 
females of the household will go at times to the grave of father, brother, 
or husband, to weep there, and are joined by relatives and friends." — 
Rev. William, Ewing. 



32. Lord, if Thou Hadst Been Here, My Brother Had Not Died.— 
There is no complaint, but only the wish that things might have been 
different. 

" Of all sad words of tongue or pen, 
The saddest are these, ' It might have been ! ' 

Ah, well ! for us some sweet hope lies 
Deeply buried from human eyes, 

And in the hereafter angels may 

Roll the stone from its grave away.' " — Whittier. 



33. Groaned, IvePpiji^o-aTo, " from Ppipvu,, Bpip,&>, a name of Persephone 
or Hecate, and signifying The Angered, always implies something of 
anger and indignation." 



Troubled, €Tdpa|€v Iciutov, troubled Himself, like the waves of the sea 
in a storm. 



35. Jesus Wept (eSdtcpvo-cv). — " A different verb from that in ver. 31. 
From 8dKpv, tear, and meaning to shed tears, to weep 
Vincent, 



XI : 37-44 ST. JOHN 323 



A. D. 30. 

Jan. or Feb. 
BETHANY. 
Resurrec- 
tion of 
Lazarus. 



37. Aud some of them said, Could not this man, which opened 
the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should 
not have died ? 

38. Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the 
grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. 

39. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister 
of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he ^* *5 
stinketh ; for he hath been dead four days. 

40. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldst believe, thou 
shouldest see the glory of God? 

41. Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And 
Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. 

42. And I knew that thou hearest me always; but because of the people which 
stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. 

43. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come 
forth. 

44. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes ; and 
his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him and let 
him go. 

Contrast with the pagan ideal of deity. ' ' Homer's gods weep and 
bellow when wounded, but are not touched with the feeling of human 
infirmity. Mr. Gladstone observes: ' No Homeric deity will ever be 
found to make a personal sacrifice on behalf of a human client.' So 
Diana, when appealed to by the wretched Hyppolytus for sympathy, 
replies, ' I see thy love, but must not shed a tear.' See Iliad xxi. 379, 
364; 461-467; xxiv. 525."— M. R. Vincent. 



The Heart of God. — This act expresses the heart of God. We can- 
not conceive how the Eternal and Unchangeable can express His 
sympathy with us except through His Son. " When, then, our Saviour 
weeps from sympathy at Mary's tears, let us not say that it is the love 
of a man overcome by natural feeling. It is the love of God, the bowels 
of compassion of the Almighty and Eternal, condescending to appear 
as we are capable of receiving it, in the form of human nature. " — J. H. 
Newman, Ser. '£., 3d vol. 

" Sympathy is Costly; aid of every sort is costly. But, as Dr. John- 
son said, so are spite and ill-nature ' among the most expensive luxuries 
of life.' It costs us immensely to be rude, ill-mannered, or mean : it 
costs much to give way to unrighteous anger, to harbor sjDite and ill- 
nature. If we must spend so much of our life forces upon others, were 
it not better to spend it in kindness than in unkindness ?"— 12. C. 
Trumbull. 



324 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XI : 37-44 

When the noted Father Taylor, of Boston, was at the point of death 
some one suggested to him that he would soon be with the angels. He 
spoke up quickly, " I don't want angels, I want folks/' 



42. That They May Believe. — " There is a legend that the Empress 
Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, reproached him for being 
converted to Christianity. He replied by inviting her to a test of the 
power of her religion and his. Crato and Zeno. the famous Greek phil- 
osophers, were the judges. Zambri, the magician of Helena, said, ' I 
know the name of the Omnipotent. Let them bring me 
the fiercest wild bull that can be found, and when I have Leg-end of 
uttered that name in his ear he will fall dead.' And it so Helena, 
came to pass. But Sylvester, on Constantine's side, said, 
* The name he has pronounced cannot be that of God, but of Satan ; for 
Christ does not strike the living dead, but restores the dead to life. Let 
Zambri restore the dead creature to life.' But he could not. Then 
Sylvester made the sign of the cross, and the bull rose up alive, and no 
longer fierce, but tame and gentle. It is in saving men, in giving life 
to dead sinners, in curing from evils, that Christ proves His divine 
power." — Foster's Cyclopedia, 1 : 4938. 



44. He That Was Dead Came Forth. — The garments were bound 
about him somewhat loosely, so that " with the new life pulsating 
through his body, he was able, in obedience to the word of Jesus, 
to come forth slowly from the sepulchre, and to stand there in the 
vigor of health, though in the garments of death, before the wonder- 
stricken company." — Professor Hovey. 



1 ' Health's crimson light o'erspread his face, 
His eye was fire, his step was grace ; 
No trace of what it was before 
The metamorphosed body wore." — Bergner. 



The Story of Lazarus. — 

"The face of Christ 
Shone as He stood, and over Him there came 
Command, as 'twere the living face of God, 
And with a loud voice, He cried, ' Lazarus ! 
Come forth !' And instantly, bound hand and foot, 
And borne by unseen angels from the cave, 
He that was dead stood with them. At the word 
Of Jesus, the fear-stricken Jews unloosed 



XI: 37-44 ST. john 325 

The bands from off the foldings of his shroud ; 

And Mary, with her dark veil thrown aside, 

Ran to him swiftly, and cried, ' Lazarus ! 

My brother, Lazarus ! ' and tore away 

The napkin she had bound about his head, 

And touched the warm lips with her fearful hand. 

And on his neck fell weeping. And while all 

Lay on their faces prostrate, Lazarus 

Took Mary by the hand, and they knelt down 

And worshiped Him who loved them." — N. P. Willis. 



A. 1>. 30. 

Jan. or Feb. 
BETHANY. 
Resurrec- 
tion of 
Lazarus. 

* 



Hearing of One's Own Funeral Sermon. — I know a minister who 
preached the funeral of two soldiers in the late war, supposing them to 
be dead ; but they both returned alive. How glad they would have 
been to have the opportunity of knowing what was said of them. 

Some time before his death the late Alvin G. Clark, the famous 
maker of the largest and most perfect telescope lenses, " saw an 
anouncement of his death in the newspapers, and at first was annoyed 
thereby. But, says the story, his wife received so many expressions of 
sympathy and such tributes to Mr. Clark's virtues, that on the whole, 
he was glad the mistake had been made. The rumor attracted much 
attention in scientific circles." 



" Where wert thou, brother, those four days?' 
There lives no record of reply, 
Which, telling what it is to die, 
Had surely added praise to praise. 

" From every house the neighbors met, 

The streets were fill'd with joyful sound. 
A solemn gladness even crown'd 
The purple brows of Olivet. 

' Behold a man raised up by Christ ! 
The rest remaineth unrevealed ; 
He told it not ; or something seal'd 
The lips of that Evangelist." — Tennyson, In Memoriam. 



Application. — To those who are dead in sin, Jesus calls, Come forth ; 
but there is something for them to do, — to obey and come. 

When they come into the new life, they are often bound with the 
grave-clothes of former habits, of prejudice, of ignorance of spiritual 
truths. 



326 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XI : 37-44 

What the Raising of Lazarus Proves. — The raising of Lazarus 
proved that the soul has an existence independent of the body, and that 
death does not end all. 

Plato (see Plato's Phcedo) and the Greek philosophers debated over 
the famous question whether the relation of the soul to the body is that 
of harmony to a harp, the music ceasing forever when the harp is broken, 
or of a rower to a boat, the rower, surviving though the boat be destroyed. 
They decided in favor of the latter. The soul is not the product of the 
body, as harmony is of the harp, nor does it cease, as music, when the 
harp is destroyed, or as the flame when the candle is burned out. But 
the soul has an independent existence, as the rower's existence is inde- 
pendent of the boat, and controls the body as the rower controls the 
boat. 



Through Lazarus 1 Glasses. —Robert Browning, in his poem "An 
Epistle," supposed to have been written by an Arab physician who was 
visiting Palestine while Lazarus was still alive, describes the way 
Lazarus looked at this life after he had returned from his four days' 
dwelling in heaven. Earthly cares and hopes were so small and dim in 
that light. " How many cares and worries would disappear if viewed 
through Lazarus' glasses ! " "On the other hand, through these same 
wonderful glasses, how important and weighty is any seemingly slight 
occurrence if it plants the seed of vice or virtue in any human heart." 
" We ought to test each event of life through these glasses." " Does it 
affect merely my material circumstances, or has it an influence on my 
character, my spiritual self, or on my friend's character, my friend's 
soul?" See article in Congregationalist for Nov. 2, 1893, "Through 
Lazarus' Glasses." 

Compare the effect upon Lazarus as represented in Browning's 
Epistle, in Professor Plumptre's poem, in Tennyson's In Memoriam, 
xxxi, and in the case of the well-known trance of the New Jersey min- 
ister. Dr. Tennent. 



"An Epistle Containing the Strange Medical Experience of 
Karshish." 

"The man's own firm conviction rests 
That he was dead (in fact, they buried him) — 
That he was dead and then restored to life 
By a Nazarene physician of his tribe: 
— 'Sayeth, the same bade 'Rise,' and he did rise. 

" The man — it is one Lazarus, a Jew, 
Sanguine, proportioned, fifty years of age, 



A. D. 30. 

Jan. or Feb. 
BETHANY. 
Resurrec- 
tion of 
Lazarus. 



XI: 37-44 ST. JOHN 327 

The body's habit wholly laudable, 
As much, indeed, beyond the common health 
As he were made and put aside to show. 
Think, could we penetrate by any drug, 
And bathe the wearied soul and worried flesh, 
And bring it clear and fair, by three days' sleep ! 
Whence has the man the balm that brightens all? 
This grown man eyes the world now like a child. 
" Look ! if a beggar, in a fixed middle life, 
Should find a treasure, . . . 
So here — we call the treasure knowledge, say, 
Increased beyond the fleshly faculty — 
Heaven opened to a soul while yet on earth. 

" Thus is the man as harmless as a lamb: 
Only impatient, let him do his best, 
At ignorance and carelessness and sin — » 
An indignation which is promptly curbed. " — Browning. 



Lazarus. — Dr. Plumptre represents Lazarus as the rich young ruler 
who went to Jesus asking how he could obtain eternal life. Jesus had 
been to his house, and he had learned from Martha and Mary to respect 
and honor Jesus. "Jesus kissed his brow as Rabbis do to scholars 
whom they love," and bade him sell all his goods, and give to the poor, 
and take up his cross and follow Hioi. He was unwilling to do this. 
But soon after he was taken sick of a fever and died. Dr. Plumptre 
represents him as going down to Gehenna, where "all his life lay 
spread before him as an open scroll," and "memory's fountains pour 
their seething floods." 

" The man who once has looked 
Behind the veil which severs death from life, 
He would not venture all the world to win 
One single thought against the eternal law. 
We know not now the power of every soul 
To be its own tormentor." 

Then came Jesus. " Lazarus, come forth! " From that time he began 
to bear the cross. It was he whose white robe those who arrested Jesus 
laid hold of, and which he left in their hands (Luke, 16:5). 

" Thought and vigil, prayer and fast, 
These filled the hours, and evermore I sought 
To know how He who saved me, lived his life. 



328 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XI: 45-52 

45. Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which 
Jesus did, believed on him. 

46. But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things 
Jesus had done. 

47. 1 Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, 
What do we? for this man doeth many miracles. 

48. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him; and the Romans shall 
come and take away both our place and nation. 

49. And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said 
unto them, Ye know nothiug at all, 

50. Nor consider that ix is expedient for us, that one man should die for the 
people, and that the whole nation perish not. 

51. And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophe- 
sied that Jesus should die for that nation; 

52. And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one 
the children of God that were scattered abroad. 

' ' All now was gone, 
My land, my gold, my robes; I kept back naught 
But the few weeds I wore." — E. H. Plumptre, D. D. 



How One Feels Who Has Experienced Death. — " In his Life of 
Dante, Boccaccio tells that when the great Florentine was walking in 
Verona, a woman pointed him out to her neighbor as the man who 
went to the infernal regions and returned whenever he pleased. 
In a hardly less literal way, rough old Carlyle described a contemporary 
essayist as having the face of a child, and yet when you looked upon it 
for a while you said to yourself, — as Carlyle phrased it, — ' This child 
has been in hell.' There are faces in which you instinctively recognize 
the shadow of some dark experience. . . . There are faces, now 
wearing the steadfast look of victorious peace, which yet bear traces of 
a past conflict with powers of evil." — Sunday-School Times. 



The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed, 

Lets in new light through chinks that time has made: 

Stronger by weakness, wiser men become, 

As they draw near to their eternal home. 

Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view, 

That stand upon the threshold of the new." 



Victor Hugo's " Les Chante du Crepuscule." — 

" Soyez comme Poiseau, pose pour un instant 
Sur des rameaux trop freles, 



XI: 45-52 ST. JOHN 329 
Que sent plover la branche et qui chant pourtant •!• 



Sachant qu'il a des ailes." 

First translation. 
Be like the bird that, on frail branches swinging, 

A moment sits and sings ; 
He feels them tremble, but he keeps on singing, 

Knowing that he hath wings." 

Second translation. 
•' Let us be like a bird, one instant lighted 
Upon a twig that swings ; 
He feels it yield, but sings on unaffrighted, 
Knowing he has his wings." 



A. D. 30. 

Jan. or Feb. 
JERUSALEM. 

Caiaphas' 
Expedient. 



Library. — C. M. Sheldon's story, Robert Hardy's Seven Days (Cong. 
Pub. Soc), gives the experience of one who knew he had but seven days 
to live. 

50. Expedient that One Man Should Die for the People. — "And 
let thy counsel, Caiaphas, appear successful for the time: will it prove 
so in the end ? Has ever true good come from unrighteousness? God, 
it is true, may and does bring good out of evil, — 

4 From seeming evil still educing good, 
And better thence again.' — Tliomson. 

But will it be for good to those who do the unrighteous deed, carry out 
the unrighteous plan ? Never ! " 



Dante Places Caiaphas and his father-in-law, Annas, far down in 
Hell, in the Bolgia of the Hypocrites : 

" To mine eyes there rushed 
One crucified with three stakes on the ground. 
When me He saw, He writhed Himself all over, 
Blowing into his beard with suspirations ; 
And the friar Catalan, who noticed this, 
Said to me : ' This transfixed one whom thou seest, 
Counseled the Pharisees that it was meet 
To put one man to torture for the people. 
Crosswise and naked is he on the path, 
As thou perceivest ; and he needs must feel, 



330 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XI: 53-57 



53. Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death. 

54. Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews; but went thence 
unto a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there con- 
tinued with his disciples. 

55. 1[ And the Jews' passover was nigh at hand : and many went out of the country 
up to Jerusalem before the passover, to purify themselves. 

56. Then sought they for Jesus, and spake among themselves, as they stood in 
the temple, What think ye, that he will not come to the feast? 

57. Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment, 
that, if any man knew where he were, he should shew it, that they might take him. 

Whoever passes, first how much he weighs ; 
And in like mode his father-in-law is punished 
Within this moat, and the others of the council, 
Which for the Jews was a malignant seed." 

— Inferno, xxiii. 110-122. 



Reference. — See illustration under 10:18, on the self-devotion of 
the atonement. 



53. Took Counsel to Put Him to Death. — Dr. John Hall, in one of 
his sermons, compared the attacks of infidelity upon Christianity to a 
serpent gnawing at a file. As he kept on gnawing, he was greatly 
encouraged by the sight of the growing pile of chips, till, feeling pain 
and seeing blood, he found that he had been wearing his own teeth away 
against the file, but the file was unharmed, These Pharisees thought 
they were destroying Jesus, while in reality they were destroying them- 
selves and their nation. 



XII: 1-3 



ST. JOHN 



331 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE BETHANY CHAPTER. 



1. Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, 
where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from 
the dead. 

2. There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but 
Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. 

3. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very 
costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with 
her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the 
ointment. 



A. D. 30. 

Sat. Eve., 

April 1. 

SIX DAYS BEFORE 
THE CRUCI- 
FIXION. 

BETHANY. 
The An- 
ointing by 
Mary in 
Simon's 
House. 



A man, says Emerson, is like a bit of Labrador spar, 
which has no lustre as you turn it, till you come to a certain angle ; 
then it shows deep and beautiful colors. 

It is something the same with this chapter. At certain angles, from 
certain points of view, the truth shines more brilliantly than from 
others. Here we see Jesus in the family, and see the value he places 
upon affection and upon its expression. 



Pictures. — At the Home of Mary and Martha, by Hofmann and 
Siemiradski ; Tlie Supper at Bethany, by Martin de Vos. 

Library. — Mrs. Jamieson's Sacred and Legendary Art. In Long- 
fellow's Divine Tragedy is a picture of Martha and Mary. Jacox's Side 
Lights, "Martha and Mary." Sermons by Talmage, Series 3, "The 
Best We Have," and " Wasted Aroma." J. R. Miller's booklet, Mary of 
Bethany 



Note the part each one of the Bethany family took in this feast. 
Lazarus was a guest, and strangers from the country of Judea and 
Galilee, who had come to the Passover, were desirous of seeing one who 
had so marvellous experience, especially in the presence of the teacher 
of whose wondrous works they had heard. 

Martha, true to her character, attends to the household cares, and to the 
outward comfort of Jesus. She shows her reverence and love in this way. 

Mary expresses her love by the lavish use of the precious nard. She, 
too, is at the old business again, only with deeper love and sympathy 
than before. This is a lovely picture of Mary. She is again at the 
feet of Jesus. 



332 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XII : 1-3 

" Her eyes are homes of silent prayer, 
Nor other thought her mind admits 
But, he was dead, and there he sits, 
And He that brought him back is there. 

" Then one deep love doth supersede 
All other, when her ardent gaze 
Roves from the living brother's face, 
And rests upon the Life indeed." — Tennyson. 



They Made Him a Supper. — Note that Christ ate together with His 
friends in full view of his cross. Eating together may transfigure the 
physical by the spiritual, and the meal-times of the family be times of 
special blessing. 



And Martha Served. — 

' ' Be Martha still in deed and good endeavor, 
In faith like Mary, at his feet forever." — Coleridge. 



3. A Pound of Ointment of Spikenard, Very Costly. — This 
woman's giving up her alabaster box of precious nard reminds us of the 
burning of the magical books at Ephesus when the sorcerers turned 
away from their arts and came to Christ for pardon." — G. S. Robinson. 



The Spirit of Sacrifice. — "This is the spirit which offers precious 
things, simply because they are precious, not as being necessary to the 
building, but as an offering and sacrifice of what is to ourselves desir- 
able. . . . This is a good and just feeling, and as well pleasing to 
God and honorable to men, as it is beyond all dispute necessary to the 
production of any great work in the kind with which we are at present 
concerned. In the Levitical sacrifice, costliness was generally a con- 
dition of the acceptableness of the sacrifice. That costliness must be an 
acceptable condition in all human offerings at all times, — an external 
sign of their love and obedience, and surrender of themselves and theirs 
to His will. It is not the church we want, but the sacrifice ; not the 
emotion of admiration, but the act of adoration ; not the gift, but the 
giving." — John Ruskin. 



Library. — " Ru skin's Seven Lamps of Architecture, " The Lamp of 
Sacrifice;" Trench's Westminster Sermons, "The Prodigalities of 
Love." — Prof. Eli's Social Law of Service. The Gifts of Love. 



XII : 1-3 ST. JOHN 333 



Giving What is Costly. — A missionary, in a re- 
port of his field of labors, says, " I can imagine some 
one saying, as he reads his report, ' Well, I can give 
five dollars to the cause ; I can give this amount and 
not feel it.' Suppose, my Christian brother, you should 
give $20 and feel it." 



A. D. 30. 

Sat. Eve., 
April I. 

SIX DAYS BEFORE 
THE CRUCI- 
FIXION. 

BETHANY. 

The An- 
ointing; by 

ITIary in 



Simon's 
House. 



How to Give. — "A gentleman, well known for his 
large benefactions, was asked what part of his income 
he was iu the habit of contributing to the Lord's 
treasury. 'I do not know,' said he; 'I do very 
much as the woman did who was famous for the excellence of her 
rhubarb pies. She put in as much sugar as her conscience would allow, 
and then shut her eyes and put in a handful more. I give all my 
conscience approves, and then add a handful without counting.' "— Con- 
gregationalist. 



The House Was Filled With the Odor, as indeed the church and 
the world have been filled with the odor of this loving deed. 



No shattered box of ointment 

We ever need regret, 
For out of disappointment 

Flow sweetest odors yet. 

The discord that involveth 
Some startling change of key, 

The Master's hand resolveth 
In richest harmony." 



The Fragrance of Good Deeds.— "When I was in Paris, I used to 
rise early and sit at my open window. I always knew when the stores 
beneath me were open ; for one was a flower store, and from its num- 
berless roses, and heaps of mignonette, arose such sweet, sweet fra- 
grance, that it proclaimed what was done. It seems to me that Christians 
should be as a flower store, and that the odor of sanctity should betray 
them wherever they are. Not that they should go about obtruding 
themselves and their actions on others, with the rant of usefulness, but 
that they should live the purity and joy of religion, so that men might 
see the desirableness of it, both for the sake of nobleness, and for the 
enjoyment both of this world and that which is to come."— H. W. 
Beecher. 



334 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XII : I~3 

The Deeds and the Heart.— 

" It is not the deed we do, 

Though the deed be never so fair, 
But the love that the dear Lord looketh for, 
Hidden with holy care 
In the heart of the deed so fair. 

4 ' The love is the priceless thing, 

The treasure our treasure must hold ; 
Or ever the Lord will take the gift, 
Or tell the worth of the gold 
By the love that cannot be told. 

" Behold us, the rich and the poor, 

Dear Lord in Thy service drawn near : 
One consecrateth a precious coin, 
One droppeth only a tear ; 
Look, Master, the love is here ! " 



Even a little love in our life is the sunshine that quickens and warms 
and brightens the whole. 

The Chorus of Odors. — We are told in the Britanniea that the late 
Dr. Septimus Piesse " endeavored to show that a certain scale or gamut 
existed among odors as among sounds, taking the sharp smells to cor 
respond with high notes, and the heavy smells with low." "He asserted 
that to properly constitute a bouquet, the odors to be taken should cor- 
respond in the gamut like the notes of a musical chord, — one false 
note among the odors, as in music, destroying the harmony." So the 
combinations of perfumery are " sometimes made upon a quasi-scientific 
basis, namely, the odophone or gamut of odors of the late Dr. Septimus 
Piesse." I had a friend, a professor, who said that we might yet have 
concerts of odors as we do now of music. 



Odors From Mary's Box of Nard. — Note some of the fragrances 
that arise from Mary's box of nard : 

1. " The sweetest perfume that the home circle ever knows rises from 
deeds of loving service which its members do for each other. The 
sweetest perfumes of our homes do not arise from elegant furniture, 
soft carpets, rare pictures, or luxurious viands. Many a home having 



XII : 1-3 



ST. JOHN 



335 



A. D. 30. 

Sat. Eve., 
April I. 

SIX DAYS BEFORE 
THE CRUCI- 
FIXION. 

BETHANY. 
The An- 
ointing by 
Mary in 

Simon's 
House* 



all these is pervaded by an atmosphere as tasteless and 
odorless as bouquets of waxen flowers. Lucy Larcom, 
the poetess, once wrote, • I think I should be homesick 
in a mansion filled with angels, if my own precious 
friends whom I love w T ere not within call.' It is a 
glorious thing to live such a life that precious fragrance 
shall rise from it and be exhaled unconsciously." — 
Louis Albert Banks, in The Christ Dream. 

2. " The first condition of all really great moral ex- 
cellence is a spirit of genuine self-sacrifice and self- 
renunciation." — Lecky's History of European Morals, >i> ~ — **" 
2 : 155. 

' ' May I reach 
That purest heaven ; be to other souls 
The cup of strength in some great agony. 
So shall I join the choir invisible 
Whose music is the gladness of the world." 

— George Eliot. 

3. It is not the largeness or the smallness of the gifts, but the cost to us, 
the self-sacrifice in giving, made freely and gladly, that measures love. 

4. There is great value in these expressions to those that receive them . 
Sympathy with the poor expressed by gifts is worth many times the 
same gifts without the sympathy. There is great hunger in the world 
for expressions of affection ; and the world would be vastly happier if 
the affection really existing between parents and children, husbands 
and wives, pastors and people, teachers and taught, were more often 
and more fully expressed. 

5. Love is increased by expressing it. Scarcely anything can awake 
into conscious activity our love for Jesus so much as making sacrifices 
for Him. 

6. Each must give in his own way, and what he himself has. Martha 
gave service, and it was accepted and recorded. Mary gave the alabas- 
ter box of perfume. Each did what she could. 

7. Often the continuous giving of many littles is more costly and more 
acceptable than one great gift. 



Library. — " Little Dorrit turned at the door to say, ' God bless you ! ' 
She said it very softly, but perhaps she may have been as audible above 
— who knows? — as a whole cathedral choir." — Little Dorrit, chap. 14. 



Library. 
verse. 



Mrs. Browning's Poems, "Confessions," next to the last 



336 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XII: 4-6 

4. Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should 
betray him, 

5. Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the 
poor? 

6. This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and 
had the bag, and bare what was put therein. 

4. Judas, which Also Betrayed Him. — Prof. Henry Drummond, 
in his Tropical Africa, has a chapter on '* The White Ant," which lives 
on wood, and unseen eats out the heart of the tree as soon as it ceases 
to live. "You build your house, perhaps, and for a few 
months fancy you have pitched upon the one solitary site White Ants 
in the country where there are no white ants. But one day and Their 
suddenly the door-post totters, and lintel and rafter come Work, 
down together with a crash. You look at a section of the 
wrecked timbers, and discover that the whole inside has been eaten 
clean away. The apparently solid logs of which the rest of the house 
is built are now mere cylinders of bark, and through the thickest of 
them you could push your little finger." Such is a picture of the 
kingdom of Ahab when Elijah appeared to save the nation. Its heart 
was eaten out by idolatry and immorality. 

Library. — Compare the legend of Solomon's staff. The king stood 
between the pillars of the temple, dead, but appearing alive, till a 
mouse gnawed through his ebony staff, when he fell. — Koran, xxxiv. 
10. In Owen Meredith's (Earl of Lytton) Poems, this story is told in 
verse. A part is given by Farrar in Expositor's Bible, 1 Kings, p. 263. 



Reporting Faults. — Note that the apostles do not hesitate to record 
even those actions which are discreditable to themselves. They hide 
nothing. And this is one mark of the divine authorship of 
the Gospels. Men would naturally have concealed the Alexander's 
faults of their saints and heroes "for the good of the Scar, 
cause," as the artist painted Alexander the Great's portrait 
with a finger over the scar on his face. These records are a comfort, 
also ; for what Christian could find hope for himself, or for his age, if 
all the early saints had been perfect ? 



6. The Bag (y\<a<ra-6Ko\iov). "Only here and xiii. 29. Originally 
a box for keeping the mouth-pieces of wind instruments. From -yXwcnra, 
tongue, and kou,€o>, to tend. The word was also used for a coffin. 
Josephus applies it to the coffer in which the golden mice and emerods 
were preserved (1 Sam. vi. 11.") — Prof. M. R. Vincent. 



XII: 4-6 ST. JOHN 337 

The Box of Money and the Box of Perfumes. — ^ — 
" Mark the striking contrast between the money box 
of Judas and the alabaster box of Mary, his thirty 
pieces of silver and her three hundred denarii, his 
love of money and her liberality, his hypocritical pro- 
fession of concern for the poor and her noble deed for 
the Lord, his wretched end and her noble memory 
forever."— P. Schaff, D. D. 



A. D. 30. 

Sat. Eve., 
April i. 

SIX DAYS BEFORE 
THE CRUCI- 
FIXION. 

BETHANY. 

Tlie An 

oiwtini: by 

Mary in 

Simon's 
House. 

" A few days ago a well-known teacher of singing 
presented herself to a physician, and, in an irritated 
tone of voice, said : ' Doctor, I wish you would tell me what ails me. 
I hear fifty voices every time any one speaks to me.' The doctor looked 
at her a moment and then replied, ' Madame, you probably 
hear two.'" The doctor tested her ears with a tuning fork, Ears Out 
and found that the same pitch sounded a minor third lower of Focus, 
m one ear than in the other. To use a homely but signifi- 
cant misapplication of terms, her ears were " out of focus." Thus men 
hear and see the same thing as if it were a different thing. The act 
of Mary, which was music to her and to Jesus, was a jangling discord 
to Judas. 



Examples. — There is great danger of judging things from a wrong 
standard. Money values, utility for the necessities of existence, are not 
the only standards of value. "Actions which have no immediate 
results are pronounced by such persons to be mere sentiment and waste, 
while in fact they redeem human nature and make life seem worth 
living. The charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava served none of 
the immediate purposes of the battle, and was indeed a blunder and 
waste from that point of view; yet are not our annals enriched by it as 
they have been by few victories ? There are thousands of persons in 
our own society who think it essential to teach their children arith- 
metic, but pernicious to instil into their minds a love of poetry or art. 
They judge of education by the test, Will it pay? can this attainment 
be turned into money ? The other question, Will it enrich the nature 
of the child and of the man? is not asked." — Prof. Dods. I believe 
that sometimes we misunderstand the needs of the poor, who often 
hunger more for something to satisfy their tastes and mental or spiritual 
longings than for food. 



Valuing the Sun. — "They who would think the sun a useful 
qreature if he would come down from the sky and light their fires* will 
ft 



338 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XII : 4-6 

gravely reprehend such wasteful extravagance " as bringing more than 
enough, as did the Israelites for the tabernacle, and as the sun is doing 
all the time. So Carlyle, in his estimate of the " uses of Dante," 
declines to say much about " uses." " We will not estimate the sun by 
the quantity of gaslight it saves us." — Jacox. 



The Lion's Feast and the Swine. — " When Dr. Justus Jonas told 
Dr. Martin Luther of a certain potent landholder who said to Duke 
John Frederic, when commending to him the Gospel of Christ, ' Sir, 
the Gospel pays no interest.' ' Have you no grains,' was Luther's 
interrogative comment, citing the words of the swine at the lion's 
feast, when invited to feast on recondite dainties. Even so, said Dr. 
Martin, there are inveterate worldlings who, when invited to the 
spiritual feast of fat things well refined, ' turn up their snouts and ask 
for guilders.' " — Jacox. 



Body Needs and Soul Needs. — " There are mortals who think 
that the supply of animal necessities is all that any man (but them- 
selves, perhaps) can need. What more can he want ? they exclaim, if 
the man be well-fed, and well-dressed, and well-lodged. Why, if he 
had been a horse or a pig, is the answer, he would have wanted nothing 
more; but the possession of a rational soul brings with it pressing wants 
not to be supplied by material things, and not felt by pigs or horses." — 
Jacox. 



Library. — Jacox's "Secular Annotations," vol. I., pp. 309-313. "A 
Purse-bearer's Protest Against Purposeless Waste," adds other illustra- 
tions to those quoted from that essay. 



7. Against the Day op My Burying Hath She Kept This. — " Do 
not keep the alabaster boxes of your love and tenderness sealed up until 
your friends are dead. Fill their lives with sweetness. Speak approv- 
ing, cheering words while their ears can hear them and while their 
hearts can be thrilled and made happier by them ; the kind things you 
mean to say when they are gone, say before they go. The flowers you 
mean to send for their coffins, send to brighten and sweeten their homes 
before they leave them. If my friends have alabaster boxes laid away, 
full of fragrant perfumes of sympathy and affection, which they intend 
to break over my dead body, I would rather they would bring them out 
in my weary and troubled hours and open them, that I may be refreshed 
and cheered by them while I need them. I would rather have a plain 
coffin, without a flower, a funeral without an eulogy, than a life with- 



XII:; 



ST. JOHN 



339 



7. Then said Jesus, Let her alone: 
burying hath she kept this. 



against the day of my 



out the sweetness of love and sympathy. Let us learn 
to anoint our friends beforehand for their burial. 
Post-mortem kindness does not cheer the burdened 
spirit. Flowers on the coffin cast no fragrance back- 
ward over the weary way." — Anon. On a slip circu- 
lated by Lewis Merriam, of Greenfield, Mass. 

Ante Mortem. — 

" How much would I care for it, could I know 
That when I am under the grass or snow, 



A. ». 30. 

Sat. Eve., 
April I. 

SIX DAYS BEFORE 
THE CRUCI- 
FIXION. 

BETHANY. 
The An- 
ointing by 
Mary in 
Simon's 
House. 



How much do you think it would matter then 
What praise was lavished upon me, when, 
Whatever might be its stint or store, 
It neither could help nor harm me more ? 

Had I but heard 

One breath of applause, one cheering word — 
One cry of ' Courage ! ' amid the strife, 
So weighted for me with death or life — 
How would it have nerved my soul to strain 
Thro' the whirl of the coming surge again. 

What use for the rope if it be not flung 

Till the swimmer's grasp to the rock has clung ? 

What worth is eulogy's blandest breath 
When whispered in ears that are hushed in death ? 
No ! No ! if you have but a word of cheer, 
Speak it while I am alive to hear." 

— Margaret J. Preston. 



George Combe's Experience. — "In reading the life of George 
Combe, the father of English phrenology, we were much struck with 
the following paragraph which occurs in a fragment of autobiography 
all too short : ' With a nature highly affectionate I never received a 
caress, with an ardent desire to be approved of, and to be distinguished 
for being good and clever, I never received an encomium, nor knew 
what it is to be praised for any action, exertion, or sacrifice, however 
great j and humble as was the figure I made at school, I did my best, 



340 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XII : 8 

8. For the poor always ye have with you ; but me ye have not always. 

and often dragged my weary bones there, when with a feebler sense of 
duty I should have gone to bed.' It is unspeakably sad for a man to 
carry about with him a bitter memory like that of George Combe's, and 
though his may be an exceptionally bitter one, many thousands could 
speak, if they would, in a similar strain." — London Sunday School 
Teacher. 



" How oft we, careless, wait till life's 
Sweet opportunities are past, 
And break our ' alabaster box 
Of ointment ' at the very last ! 

Oh, let us heed the living friend 
Who walks with us life's common ways, 

Watching our eyes for look of love, 
And hungering for a word of praise ! " 

— British Weekly. 



8. The Poor Always Ye Have With You. — " Had Mary sold the 
ointment and distributed the money among the poor, some would no 
doubt have been directly benefited at the time; but thousands upon thou- 
sands, in all succeeding ages, would have lost immeasurably more than 
the objects of her charity would have gained. A good work wrought 
for Christ does not die away in the doing of it. It lives on in its influ- 
ence on other minds, and in every good thought and feeling and desire 
which, directly or indirectly, it may be the means of exciting. It lives 
on from generation to generation, with unspent energy and with 
immortal life ; and the doer of it lives in it, acting still, and like Abel, 
' being dead, yet speaketh.' And thus Mary is pouring out her ointment 
still, in constant, endless stream, and the perfume, which at the first 
only filled the room at Bethany, is now filling the world; and even as it 
flows on, it wins for her the Master's blessing." — R. R. Meredith. 



Doing for Christ is Doing for the Poor.— "The more they did for 
their Master, the more they would do for the poor, for the poor are left 
in His stead, and through them would be expressed the increased love of 
the Master. It is the want of love, not of money, that allows any poor 
to suffer; so that all gifts to Christ which increase our love will increase 
the gifts to the poor. 



XII: 9~I I ST. JOHN 341 



9. Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was 
there: and they came not for Jesus' sake only, but that they 
might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead. 

10. U But the chief priests consulted that they might put 
Lazarus also to death ; 

11. Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went 
away, and believed ou Jesus. 



A. ». 30. 

Sat. Eve., 
April 1. 

SIX DAYS BEFORE 
THE CRUCI- 
FIXION. 

BETHANY. 
The An- 
ointing by 
Mary in 



Simon's 
House. 



' ' The effort to spend most where least is needed 
suggests to us as to these guests at Bethany, 
gaunt, pinched, sickly faces, bare rooms, cold grates, 
feeble, dull-eyed children — in a word, starving families, who might 
be kept for weeks together on what is here spent in a few minutes; 
aud the question is inevitable, Is this right? The poor of Bethany 
would probably appeal to Mary much more hopefully than to Judas, 
and they would appeal all the more successfully, because her heart had 
been allowed to utter itself thus to Jesus." — Dods. 

Examples. — Some people have often computed the cost of great relig- 
ious meetings, as of the A. B. C. F. M. , or the Christian Endeavor con- 
ventions, as if the expense actually lessened by so much the gifts to the 
heathen or to the poor, instead of inspiring far larger gifts. The curious 
thing is that they never count up wordly expenses, the cost of stores or 
railroads and luxuries, and make the same comparison. 



God's House and the Poor. — The question is not between God's 
poor and His house ; it is not between God's house and His gospel: it is 
between God's house and ours. Have we no tessellated colors on our 
floors? no frescoed fancies on our roofs? no gilded furniture in our 
chambers? Have even the tithe of these been offered? I say this 
emphatically, that a tenth part of the expense which is sacrificed in 
domestic vanities, if not absolutely and meaninglessly lost in domestic 
discomforts and incumbrances, would, if collectively offered and wisely 
employed, build a marble church for every town in England, such as 
would be a joy and a blessing, even to pass near it in our daily walks." 
— Buskin. 



10. The Chief Priests Consulted. — A chemist can 
make a lump of ice in the midst of the very hottest fire, and Ice in the 
" the ice is no half -melted hailstone, but a lump of intense Glowing 
coldness, as if the concentration of a whole Russian winter." Crucible. 
Still more wonderful is the coldness of the heart in the 
midst of the glowing love of God. 



342 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XII : I2-l6 



12 1 On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard 
that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 

13. Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, 
Hosanna : Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. 

14. And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon ; as it is written, 

15. Fear not, daughter of Sion : behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's 
colt. 

16. These things understood not his disciples at the first : but when Jesus was 
glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that 
they had done these things unto him. 

Burning Books to Stop Their Influence. — " The first printed work 
by an Englishman to be publicly burned as incendiary, was the Gospel. 
Twice Tyndale's New Testament was burned before old St. Paul's in Lon- 
don." " But in pausing to reflect that the book which met with this fiery 
fate, and whose author ultimately met with the same, is now sold in Eng- 
land by the million (for our Received Version is substantially Tyndale's), 
one can only stand aghast at the irony of the fearful contrast which so 
widely separated the laborer and his triumph. But perhaps we can 
scarcely wonder that our ancestors, after centuries of mental blindness, 
should have tried to burn the light they were unable to bear, causing it 
thereby to shine the brighter." — Farrar, in Books Condemned to be 
Burned. 

This was a repetition, fourteen centuries later, of the efforts of the chief 
priests to destroy Him who would have saved them and their nation — 
efforts which only made the life of Jesus shine brighter among men. 



11. Put to Death — Believed. — " The image of winnowing wheat 
from the chaff, the fan in his hand, gathering the wheat into his garner, 
and burning the chaff, seems to underlie the whole story of the devel- 
oping kingdom of heaven, as St. Matthew tells it." — Prof. B. O. Moulton. 

Compare Milton's Ithuriel's spear (xviii: 37), the two poles of a magnet, 
attracting and repelling. The sunlight and rain, decomposing the dead 
vegetation, but making the living to grow. 



Spread (Kept Spreading) Their Garments, Outer Garments.— 
" They took off their own outer robes, somewhat on the principle that 
actuated the heart of young Sir Walter Raleigh, when, on 
Queen Elizabeth coming to a miry part of the road, and Sir Walter 
hesitating for an instant how to step across, he ' took off Raleigh, 
his new plush mantle, and spread it on the ground. Her 
majesty trod gently over the fair foot-cloth.' " — Morison. 



XII : 17-24 ST. JOHN 343 



A. B. 30. 

Sund.^ April 2. 

LAST WEEK. 

JERUSALEM. 

Greeks 
Seek Jesus. 



17. The people therefore that was with him when he called 
Lazarus out of his grave, and raised him from the dead, bare 
record. 

18. For this cause the people also met him, for that they 
heard that he had done this miracle. 

19. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Perceive 
ye how ye prevail nothing? behold, the world is gone after 
him. 

20. If And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at 
the feast : 

21. The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and 
desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. 

22. Philip coraeth and telleth Andrew: and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. 

23. If And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come that the Son of man 
should be glorified. 

24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground 
and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. 



Beyond the Waving Palm Branches He Saw the Cross. — In 
Tintoretto's painting of the crucifixion, in Venice, there may be seen 
in the background an ass feeding on withered palm leaves — one of the 
deepest conceptions in all art of the worthlessness of human honor. — 
J. L. Hurlburt, D.D. 



Picture. — TJie Triumphal Entry, Dore, Plockhorst, Bida. 



Library. — See Wendell Phillips' Speeches, vol. 1, p. 244. 



The Invisible Procession. — If Christ had opened the eyes of those 
looking upon this scene as the eyes of Elisha's servant were opened, so 
that they might see the invisible, no pen could picture the real triumphal 
procession. They would have seen the vast multitude of those whom 
He had healed and comforted and saved from sin, — Lazarus and 
Bartimeus, the ten lepers, the widow of Nain's son, the ruler's daughter, 
Peter's mother-in-law, a host of those whom He had raised 
from the dead, those from whom He had cast out devils, the The Choir 
blind He had made to see, and the lame that now walked, Invisible, 
the lepers He had cleansed, those who had been deliv- 
ered from the bondage of their sins and brought into the light of 
the gospel. There would join them the angels who sang at His birth, 
Moses and Elijah, who appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration, 
and the twelve legions of angels He once said were ready at His 
call. Heaven would swiftly have emptied itself, and all its choirs would 



344 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XII : 17-24 

joyfully have come down to do Him honor, and sing their songs of joy 
over many sinners brought to repentance. 

The triumphs of Caesar and Pompey were but child's play to this. 
Not all of earth's monarchs together could have summoned such a pro- 
cession. Imagination fails to paint the picture of Christ's real triumphal 
procession. 

Library. — See several illustrations in Suggestive Illustrations on 
Matthew, p. 349-354. 

20, 21. Certain Greeks — We Would See Jesus. — At the close, as 
at the beginning of His life, there came men from far away nations to 
see Jesus ; then the wise men from the East, now the wise and cultured 
Greeks. 

The sunrise upon the mountain peaks, a proof that soon the daylight 
will flood the whole earth. 



Seeing Jesus. — The desire to see Jesus as He is. The more clearly 
and truly we see Him, the greater Saviour He is to us. Wliat hinders us 
from seeing Him f Prejudice ; ignorance ; neglect ; the love of sin ; 
some single sin, as 

"A finger's breadth at hand will mar, 
A world of light in heaven afar, 
A mote eclipse a glorious star." 



24. Except a Corn of Wheat. . . Die.— " An old Persian fable 
reads thus : God created the earth a vast, level, barren plain, with not a 
green thing on it to be seen — not a flower, not a bush, not a tree on it. 
He came forth to view His new creation, and determined to adorn it 
with beauty ; and He sent His angel to sow broadcast over the world the 
choicest seeds. In one place they dropped the magnolia ; in another 
the orange ; all over the world they scattered the seed that should spring 
up in beauty. Satan, on his dark, black wing, followed, and saw the 
unburied seed lying all over the earth, and he said : ' This is the work 
of the Almighty, and I will destroy it.' So he went to work, and every 
seed that could be found he buried out of sight in the soil, and, as if to 
make his work complete, he summoned the rains of heaven, and they 
fell upon the earth and saturated it that the seed might rot away. 
Then, with his arms folded, and a malignant smile of satisfied pride, 
he looked to see the chagrin of the Almighty when He should behold His 
work destroyed. But as he gazed the seed germinated ; it broke 
through the shock, shot through the ground, and came up in forms of 
beauty everywhere ; and the apparent ruin had become an Eden of 
loveliness, of beauty."— Dr. Eddy. 



XII : 25-30 ST. JOHN 345 



A. D. 30. 

Sund., April 2. 

LAST WEEK. 

JERUSALEM. 

Greeks 
Seek Jesus. 



25. He that loveth bis life shall lose it ; and he that hateth 
his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. 

26. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I 
am, there shall also iny servant be: if any man serve me, him 
will my Father honor. 

27. Now is my soul troubled ; and what shall I say? Father, 

save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this 4* — •i 

hour. 

28. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I 
have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. 

29. The people therefore that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered : 
others said, An angel spake to him. 

30. Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your 
sakes. 

25. He That Loveth His Life Shall Lose It. — " What is symbol 
for the great Master is also symbol for his followers. Their lives may 
not be like the garnered seed, safe and plump and isolated in the 
granary. Their lives also are to be like the buried and the dying 
seed, passing, through self -forgetting sacrifice, to harvests of gracious 
result and amplitude. 

"Such is the symbol for the true life — the buried, dying, and so 
harvest-issuing, wheat-kernel. 

" Do you know Tennyson's ' Palace of Art?' I think it most wonder- 
fully sings the sad, sure loss of the soul which will not make the 
symbol for life the buried and the dying seed ; which will consecrate 
itself to selfishness: 

" I built my soul a lordly pleasure- house, 
Wherein at ease for aye to dwell ; 
I said, ' O soul, make merry and carouse, 
Dear soul, for all is well.' 
" To which my soul made answer readily: 
' Trust me, in bliss I shall abide 
In this great mansion that is built for me, 
So royal, rich, and wide.' 

" And then the poem goes on to describe the place — how rich it was ; 
how filled with all rare and precious pictures, jewelry, libraries, it was ; 
how entrancing the landscapes opening from its windows were. 

" So selfish and isolated in such a palace, the soul dwelt, thinking only 
of herself. 

" Communing with herself : ' All these are mine, 
And let the world have peace or war, 
'Tis one to me.' 



346 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XII : 2$~30 

11 Then the sad, strong music goes on to tell the inevitable issue. I 
can quote but snatches of it. 

" And so she throve and prospered — so three years 
She prospered ; on the fourth she fell, 
Like Herod, when the shout was in his ears, 
Struck through with pangs of hell. 

" And death and life she hated equally, 
And nothing saw for her despair 
But dreadful time, dreadful eternity, 
No comfort anywhere.' " — Wayland Hoyt, D. D. 



Curse of Self-Seeking. — " The world hates egotists. The abne- 
gation of self is the first step in the path of Christian discipline. No 
great moral reform ever had its inception in the mind that labored for 
a love of glory. The unhappy man who spent his last days in lonely 
exile at St. Helena would have met a different fate had he not sought 
to make the world a pedestal for his feet. Self- worship was the cause 
of most of his misery. Indeed, no man can be happy who loves him- 
self better than his neighbor, and who is the god of his own idolatry, 
whatever the state of his fortune or his position in life. Alexander, 
after conquering the world, was a prey to melancholy. He envied 
Diogenes in his tub." — Condensed from Harold Van Santvoord, in 
S. S. Times. 

Life Eternal. — 

"The cross for only a day, 
The crown for ever and aye — 
The one for a night that would soon be gone 
The one for eternity's glorious morn." 



The Gaining of Life by losing it has a continual and wise applica- 
tion in our lives. We gain the most physical pleasure from our appe- 
tites, as in eating and drinking, by subordinating them to the higher 
law of right and duty. We gain the most from recreation by making 
it subordinate to our daily work or study. By losing we save. 



Library. — Poems by Olive Schreiner " The Dream of Wild Bees," in 
which one comes to the mother and offers her child health, and another 
wealth, and another fame, and another love, and another talent, and 



XII: 25-30 ST. JOHN 347 

she rejects them all, until at last one conies with none <i> ^ 

of these seeming realities, but with the capacity for a. D. 30. 

great "vision," and his mother bids him touch the Sund., April 2. 

child, and he leans forward and lays his hand upon last week. 

it and says, " This shall be thy reward, that the ideal Greeks 

shall be real to thee." Seek Jesus. 



26. Where I Am, There My Servant Also. — Row- 
land Hill in the later years of his life used to repeat often 

" And when I'm to die, 
Receive me, I'll cry, 
For Jesus has loved me, I cannot tell why ; 
But this I can find, 
We two are so joined 
Hell not be in glory and leav^e me behind.' 



32. Will Draw All Men Unto Me. — " Some years ago, at Willett's 
Point, New York, Captain King, of the United States Army, made an 
interesting experiment. He took an old gun sixteen feet long, wound 
it with ten miles of copper wire, and then connected it with an electrical 
battery. The result was astounding. The old gun, used to repulsion, 
the synonym of destruction, only useful when opposed to great forces, 
had changed its character completely. It now exhibited wonderful 
attractive power. The cannon-ball that once whistled from its mouth, 
now, by an irresistible force, leaped toward it. The iron and steel 
which it used to repel were now enticed. In short, Captain King found 
that the disused gun was the most powerful magnet in the world. 

" It soon became one of the sights to see cannon-balls, which no man 
could lift, rise from the ground to the muzzle of the magnet, and it did 
not take long to find out that this wonderful magnet had a lifting 
power of twenty-two tons. 

" One of the most interesting experiments was to place a soldier about 
a foot from the muzzle of the gun, and then turn on the current. 
Great iron spikes would jump from the ground and attach 
themselves to the silent soldier, who bristled with them all A Wonder- 
over like a metallic porcupine. Even great cannon-balls ful Magnet, 
would leap up and bang upon him. There he would stand, 
holding up a much greater weight than he could ever possibly lift, and 
all with no conscious expenditure of strength. This, which was the 
natural, seemed the wonderful part of the scene, and always impressed 
the visitor. 



348 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XII 131-36 



31. Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast 
out. 

32. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. 

33. This he said, signifying what death he should die. 

S4. The people answered him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth 
for ever ; and how sayest tbou, The Son of man must be lifted up ? who is this Son 
of man ? 

35. Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk 
while ye have the light, lest darkuess come upou you ; for he that walketh in dark- 
ness knoweth not whither he goeth. 

36. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. 
These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them. 

" For the power was not in the man, but in the magnet behind him. It 
was simply working through him, and would always do so as long as he 
stood within the radius of its activity. When he moved away from the 
magnet, the iron would fall from his body, because there was no power 
in him to sustain it. 

" There is a beautiful analogy between this magnet and the Great 
Teacher who said, 'I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men 
unto me,' and who is to-day to mankind the supreme magnetic centre 
and fountain of moral and spiritual force. They who follow His teach- 
ings are made strong to bear burdens they never could bear alone. " — 
Youth's Companion. 



A magnet attracts all particles of iron. Every particle is not brought 
to it, but every particle is attracted. 



Library. — D. W. Whittle's Gospel Pictures, "The Magnet Sermon." 
Louis Albert Banks, Christ and His Friends, p. 324, " The Divine Pro- 
phet." 



Take a Magnet. — ' ' Some time ago, in one of the largest hardware 
houses in New York, a little errand boy was sent to the top shelf for an 
odd size in nails. He was newly hired and very nervous. In his eager- 
ness to obey promptly, the package was dropped, and its contents scat- 
tered. Poor little man ! 'Tvvas bad enough without the clerk's unkind 
' Now you'll have the job of picking them up ! ' —and a job he found it 
— but to make his mortification complete, one of the members of the 
firm came upon him thus employed. The tall figure paused for an 
instant beside the little stooping one. He did not fail to see the flushed 
face and quivering lip, nor how often the tiny wire nails eluded the 
trembling fingers. With a cheery, ' Take a magnet, Tommy ; pick ' em 



XII: 37-41 ST. JOHN 349 



A. ». 30. 

Sund., April 2. 

LAST WEEK. 

JERUSALEM. 

Isaiah's 

Prophecy 

Fulfilled. 



37. H But though he had done so many miracles before them, 
yet they believed not on him : 

38. That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, 
which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to 
whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? 

39. Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias 
said again, 

40. He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; 
that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be 
converted, and I should heal them. 

41. These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him. 

all up in a minute,' and a kind pat on the little head, the busy merchant 
passed on. 

" But those words were destined to do more than give momentary help 
in a little trouble. They implanted a new principle of success in his 
life." — Magdalene Waugner, in TJie Primary Sabbath- School Teacher. 



34. Christ Abideth Forever; And How Sayest Thou, The Son of 
Man Must Be Lifted Up. — Illustrations of the difficulty the people had 
in reconciling their idea of a kingly and perpetual Messiah with the death 
of the Messiah on the cross. When we see only parts of things they may 
seem irreconcilable, while the reconciliation is perfectly clear to a wider 
vision. 

(1) A mountain path is often obscured, winds around in the opposite 
direction, seems to end in the hillside, but a wider view makes all plain. 
(2) I used to wonder in my childhood at two bands in my father's fac- 
tory, one going up and the other down through the room. To one who 
could see only so much, it would seem impossible that the two bands, 
going in opposite directions, could be one and the same band. But any 
one who would go into the room above and below, where the band 
passed over drums or pulleys, would see in a moment how the seeming 
contradiction was not only no contradiction, but that one band was the 
necessary complement of the other. (3) The fly on a Cathedral pillar 
finds many difficulties and inconsistencies which are perfectly clear and 
reasonable to a man seeing the whole building. See on xi; 6. 



40. He Hath Blinded Their Eyes. — Bunyan, in his Capture of 
Mansoul, represents the five senses as five gates to the citadel, all of 
them barred against Emmanuel, their rightful king. 

"Dr. Arnold complains of Silanus, the Greek historian, who, living 
with Hannibal daily, might have told us so much, that he ' saw and hearci 



350 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XII : 37-41 

without heeding.' Where were his eyes? They might have been of 
glass, glassy for all they seem to have taken in ; or such a pair, say, as 
that described in the Odyssey, — 

' Of horn the stiff relentless balls appear, 
Or globes of iron fixed in either sphere ' " — Jacox. 

" The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walketh in dark- 
ness. " — Eccl. 2: 14. 



Eyes and No Eyes. — "Plato divided mankind into those who have 
eyes, and those who have none ; and said that while explorers of the 
former class see what comes before them in the course of their travels, 
because they bring eyes to see it, travelers of the second class return 
home no wiser than they went. The most powerful telescope, as one of 
his expositors remarks, is useless if the focus is not rightly adjusted to 
the eye. Equally so if there is no real seeing power in the eye." 

" The familiar narrative of 'Eyes and No Eyes' might easily have its 
pendent and parallel, point by point and paragraph by paragraph, in 
one to be called ' Ears and No Ears.' " — Jacox. 



Forth from his dark and lonely hiding place, 
(Portentous sight ! ) the owlet Atheism, 
Sailing on obscene wings athwart the moon, 
Drops his blue-fringed lids and holds them close, 
And hooting at the glorious sun in heaven, 
Cries out, 'Where is it.' " — Coleridge. 



Color Blind. — Most people are more or less morally color blind. One 
of the Yale professors showed me the other day a United States flag made 
by a color-blind man who selected from silk stripes and stars of different 
colors what he thought to be red, white, and blue, and there was no 
pure red, white, or blue in it. 

Library. — Prof. Scripture's " Thinking, Feeling, Doing," has several 
illustrations. 



References. — See under ix:40. Also Suggestive Illustrations on 
Matthew, xiii:9, pp. 245-248. 



How Eyes are Blinded. — ' ' You need not break the glasses of a 
telescope, or coat them over with paint, in order to prevent you from 
seeing through them. Just breathe upon them, and the dew of your 



XII: 37-41 ST. JOHN 351 

breath will shut out all the stars. So it does not re- 
quire great crimes to hide the light of God's counten- 
ance. Little faults can do it just as well. Take a 
shield and cast a spear upon it, and it will leave in it 
one great dent. Prick it all over with a million little 
needle shafts, and they will take the polish from it far 
more than the piercing of the spear. So it is not so 
much the great sins which take the freshness from 
our consciences, as the numberless petty faults which 
we are all the while committing." — H. W. Beecher. 



A. D. 30. 

Sund.> April 2. 

LAST WEEK. 

JERUSALEM. 
Isaiali's 
Prophecy 
Fulfilled. 



They Did Not See What Was Before Their Eyes. — 
" Oh, where is the sea?" the fishes cried, 

As they swam the crystal clearness through, 
" We've heard from of old of the ocean's tide, 

And we long to look on the waters blue. 

The wise ones speak of the infinite sea ; 

Oh, who can tell us if such there be ? " 

" The lark flew up in the morning bright, 
And sung and balanced on sunny wings ; 
And this was its song : " I see the light, 
I look o'er a world of beautiful things ; 
But, flying and singing everywhere, 
In vain I have searched to find the air." 



Poisoned Eyes. — * ' There is a story of a painter who had bitterly 
offended a woman, so that she determined to take a cruel revenge. He 
was about to paint a picture for exhibition at a famous gallery, where 
he hoped to gain the first prize. The woman resolved to spoil that pic- 
ture, and she went about the work very cunningly. She did not med- 
dle with the picture itself ; all she did was to give the painter every day 
a cup of coffee into which she put a small white powder. What harm 
could that do, you want to know. Wait awhile, and the story will tell. 
The painter labored diligently and was well satisfied with his work. 
He was so confident that he should succeed in carrying off the prize, 
that, when his picture was hung in the gallery, he placed a curtain 
before it, which he did not mean to take down until the last moment 
before the judges gave their award. The other pictures seemed to him 
very badly colored ; the trees in them were all yellowish, their flesh-color 
more like leather than flesh, and the tint of their seas like that of boiled 
greens. He felt sure that his picture far excelled such sorry daubing. 
When he drew aside the curtain from his picture he was gratified to see 



352 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XII : 37-41 

that a crowd gathered round it. But the crowd did not admire. On 
the contrary, every one burst out laughing, and people called to their 
friends to come and look at this droll thing. His picture was entirely 
blue ! What he had meant for flesh color was violet in shadow ; what 
he had meant for emerald green was like blue ink ; and his trees were 
of the tint of blue serge. Of course he could not see that it was so, bur 
his friends assured him of the fact. His enemy had poisoned his eyes 
with the powder, so that he saw everything as if through yellow spec- 
tacles. In a few days — taking no more of the powder — his sight was 
restored, and he saw how ridiculous was the picture he had painted. 

The story may or may not be true, but it is quite possible, and I tell 
it you because, as a parable, it is entirely true. We are all painters at 
work upon a picture, and the picture is our own life and character. 
And our picture may be utterly spoiled if we take much of a certain 
powder. It will be more or less spoilt even if we take a little of it, and 
I am afraid that most of us take some. That powder is selfishness. A 
selfish person thinks in his heart that there is nobody, with whom 
he has to do, who is so fine a fellow as himself. The story of the 
painter is a perfect parable in making him with his poisoned eyes 
regard every other's work as mean and poor. 

It is a perfect parable in another respect. The painter did not know 
what a miserable daub his picture was until the time of judgment ! " — 
The Independent, London. 



There is a French saying, that " Prejudices are the worn-out clothes 
of clever people." 



Losing Sight. — 



' In youth, beside the lonely sea, 
Voices and visions came to me. 

In every wind I felt the stir 
Of some celestial messenger. 

Now, one by one the visions fly, 
And one by one the voices die. 

More distantly the accents ring, 
More frequent the receding wing. 

Full dark shall be the days in store 
When voice and vision come no more." 

— T. B, Aldrich, " The Prelude. 



XII -42-50 ST. JOHN. 353 



A. D. 30. 

Sund., April 2. 

LAST WEEK. 

JERUSALEM. 
A Dis- 
course of 
Jesus. 



42. T Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed 
on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, 
lest they should be put out of the synagogue : 

43. For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of 
God. 

44. ^ Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth 
not on me, but on him that sent me. 

45. And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. 

46. I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not 
abide in darkness. 

47. And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came 
not to judge the world, but to save the world. 

48. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth 
him : the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. 

49. For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me 
a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. 

50. And I know that His commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak 
therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak. 

Library. — Pres. Noah Porter, in his Books and Beading, begins with 
the description of a South Sea savage in a modern city, and especially 
in a library, showing to how many things he is blind. Butler's Analogy, 
the famous chapter 5, on the weakening of passive impressions by 
repetition, as in the well-known effect of not heeding the alarm-clock's 
call to awake in the morning. Southe} T 's poem, " The Inchcape Rock.'' 
Poem, "The Doomed Man." 

In the touching story of the Sisters Dream of Heaven, lately repub- 
lished as a tract, is an effective illustration of one who has chosen evil, — 
still retains the love of evil even among the songs of the blest, and 
against the most loving invitations of the glorified Redeemer. " I will 
not join in the dance, for I know not the measure; I will not join in 
the song, for I know not the tune." 

Blanco White's Sonnet, " Mysterious Light," shows how even the 
sunlight may blind the eyes. Another illustration can be found in The 
Expositor for October, 1897, in the "Drama of Creation." The man 
with the muckrake in Pilgrim's Progress. 



46. I Am Come a Light into the World. —Blot out the sun and our 
earth would be destroyed. Without him what would be the blessing of 
sight? So without Jesus we should have no spiritual knowledge, no 
happy love to God or man, no fruitfulness. Conclusion — 1. We may 
gather some thoughts of Jesus from the laws of light, or the modes of 
its operation. Is the sun an inexhaustible fountain of light ? In Jesus 
23 



354 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XII : 42-50 

there is an infinite fulness of grace. Does the light travel with amaz- 
ing rapidity? How swiftly do the thoughts of Jesus flow out towards 
His servants — "Before they call I will answer." Does light travel 
only in straight lines? Jesus is a holy Saviour ; His eyes look straight 
before Him in the prosecution of His Father's purposes. Is the angle 
of reflection always equal to the angle of incidence? The Christian 
knows that the light he receives from heaven, he will find it his honor 
and happiness to reflect on earth. Is light a radiant force, and does a 
small approximation to its centre bring an increase of influence ? So in 
proportion to our nearness to Christ will be our realization of His grace; 



Reference. — See under 1 : 4 and 9:5. 



XIII: I 



ST. JOHN 



355 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE LORD S SUPPER. 



1. Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew 
that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world 
unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the 
world, he loved them unto the end. 

Pictures. — The Last Supper, Da Vinci (Milan), 
Raphael (Florence), Titian (Escurial), three by Tin- 
toretto (Venice), Signorelli (Cortona), Bida, Giotto 
(Arena Chapel), Fra Angelico, Ford M. Brown (Nat. 
Gal. London.) 



A. 1>. 30. 

April b. 
Thursday Eve. 

THE EVENING 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

JERUSALEM. 

The Lord's 

Supper. 



Da Vinci and Bida. — "The Last Supper is usually represented 
by the painters at the instant when Christ quietly and sadly makes the 
startling announcement, ' And one of you shall betray Me,' or at that sub- 
sequent moment when, in the blessing and breaking of bread and the 
taking of the cup, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is instituted. Da 
Vinci's consummate picture is an illustration of the former treatment, 
and Alexander Bida's of the latter." 



Tintoretto's Pictures at Venice.— In the one in S. Giorgio Maggiore 
"the chief peculiarity is that the ascending smoke of the lamp becomes 
a choir of angels." 

"In the San Travaso picture, Judas, as though to show his utter 
indifference to the w 7 ords of Christ, is helping himself to wine from a 
flask. " — Farrar. 



Signorelli's Picture, in the Cathedral at Cortona, represents Christ 
as moving freely among the group of His disciples who are kneeling on 
a marble floor. " All of the twelve are filled with love and awe, except 
Judas, who kneels nearest to the spectator, and is engaged in counting 
and feeling the gold coins in his bag. His face wears an expression of 
disgust and bitterness." Painted in 1512. 



Leonardo da Vinci's Fresco, in the Refectory of Sta Maria delle 
Grazie, at Milan, "was the most consummate outcome of his genius. 



356 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : I 

Every other picture of the Lord's Supper is dwarfed into insignificance 
by the side of this. Christ himself remains majestic in isolation, His 
wonderful majesty only slightly dimmed by sadness." 



Library. — Description of Giotto's picture of this scene, a fresco in 
the Arena Chapel, in Mrs. Jameson's History of Our Lord in Art, pp. 
15, 16. 



Farrar's " Life of Christ in Art," " The Last Supper." 

Christ the Central Figure. —A Spanish artist was employed to 
depict the " Last Supper." It was his object to throw the sublimity of 
his art into the countenance of his Master ; but he put on the table in 
the foreground some chased cups of exquisite workmanship, and when 
his friends viewed the picture on the easel every one said, " What beau- 
tiful cups!" "Ah," said he, "I have made a mistake; these cups 
divert the eyes of the spectator from the Master, on whom I wished to 
fix the entire attention of the observer," and he took his brush and 
rubbed them from the canvas. 



A Chamber for Jesus.— In that delightful little book, " The Upper 
Room," by Rev. John Watson, the pastor of Sefton Park, Liverpool, 
among many other good things, we find this pleasant little paragraph : 
' ' Jesus is satisfied with very simple furnishing, as is plain if any one will 
take an inventory of the ' goodman's ' room : An ewer full of clean, cold 
water at the door, that the feet soiled on life's journey may be cleansed 
before entering into the Divine fellowship. There must also be a towel, 
that, after the Master's example, proud disciples, contending who shall 
be greatest, may be compelled for shame's sake to lay aside their high- 
mindedness, as one strips off a coat, and learn to serve. Purity and 
humility go far to make a fair chamber for Jesus, and one other thing 
only is needed — faith." 

Pliny's Famous Letter to Trajan, in which he speaks of the Christians 
"meeting together and singing alternately a hymn to Christ, as a God," 
etc., is an indubitably genuine document, dating about a. d. 112. — 
Outlook. 



The Supper Scene. — We must not think of a modern table, with 
chairs, as this scene is represented in many of the famous pictures, but 
we look upon a low Eastern table, surrounded on three sides by couches 
or cushioned divans, " on which each guest reclines, lying on bis left 



XIII : I ST. JOHN 357 

side, ?nd leaning on the left hand, with his head •&- 
nearest the table, and his feet stretching back towards 
the ground. Each guest occupies a separate divan, or 
pillow. Thus it was easy to wash their feet one after 
another. 



A. I>. 30. 

April 6, 
Thursday Eve. 

THE EVENING 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

JERUSALEM. 

Tlie Lord's 

Supper. 



Sitting at the King's Table. — " The Germans 
have a term, ' Tafelhahig,' worthy to sit at the - 
royal table, a high distinction. It means a long 
line of distinguished ancestry, pure blood, or high service to the 
state. Sitting at the same table elevates one, as it were, to a fraternal 
relation with the host, making of them one family. In the Lord's Sup- 
per we sit at the table of Him who is Lord of lords, and King of kings. 
Let not the prince presume at this table to jostle and push the beggar." 
— Prof. R. T. Eli, LL. D. 

The Holy Grail. — 

" On distant shore to mortal feet forbidden 
Standeth a castle, Monsalvat by name ; 
A gleaming temple in the midst is hidden, 
So rich, not all the world its like could frame. 
Therein a Cup, most holy pow'rs possessing, 
Is guarded as the gift of Heaven's love : 
To be to sinless men a boon and blessing, 
'Twas brought to us by angels from above : 
And ev'ry year a dove from Heav'n descendeth 
The mystic might within it to revive : 
'Tis called the Grail, and purest faith it lendeth 
To all those knights who in its service strive. 
He whom the Grail to be its servant chooses, 
It arms with high and supernatural might ; 
Opposed to him, deceit its magic loses, 
The powers of darkness he can put to flight, 
Though into distant lands the Grail may send him 
The cause of injured virtue to maintain." 

— From Lohengrin. 



Library. — Professor Eli's Social Law of Service, "Baptism and the 
Lord's Supper," is peculiarly rich and suggestive. The Holy Grail, in 
Tennyson, Idyls of the King, in Lowell's Vision of Sir Launfal, 
Wagner's Lohengrin. 



The Bread of the Lord's Supper. — " As our food makes our bodies 

what they are, and becomes in us bones, and flesh, and sinew, and 



358 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : I 

blood ; as our intellectual food makes our minds what they are coarse 
or refined, barbaric or cultured, disciplined or wild and riotous, so our 
spiritual companionship makes our spirits what they are." 

" For like as bread is made of a great number of grains of corn, 
ground, broken and so joined together that thereof is made one loaf 
(and the same with the cup) , likewise is the whole multitude of true 
Christian people joined first to Christ and then among themselves, 
together in one faith, one baptism, one Holy Spirit, one knot and bond 
of love." — Archbishop Cranmer. 

The Godward side draws us to heaven, to the infinite love of God, and 
sacrifice of Christ. 

The manward side draws us to our fellowmen and bids us love men 
as Christ loved men, giving ourselves for them. 



Jesus Supplies the Feast. — " The good man provided a table ; but 
he left it to Jesus to bring the feast ; and Jesus ever desireth the empty 
soul, that He may fill it with His grace." 

" In the refectory of San Marco, of Florence, there is a very pleasant 
picture, wherein St. Dominic is seated at a table with his monks, and 
he is asking a blessing over cups that have no wine, and 
platters without bread. His companions are amazed ; but, St. Dominic 
even while the saint is praying, the angels of God are at the 
moving unseen through the room, carrying the bread of Empty 
which, if any man eat, he shall never hunger again. For Table, 
it cometh to pass in this hospitality that if any one fur- 
nisheth a chamber for Jesus, he shall find he is the guest, and Jesus has 
become the host." — John Watson, D. D. (Ian Maclaren). 



Reference. — See illustrations of the Lord's Supper in Suggestive 
Illustrations on Matthew, p. 419-423. 



1. He Loved (rpydinio-cv). — "Notice that John uses the word indi- 
cating the discriminating affection : the love of choice and selection." — 
Vincent. 



He Loved Them Unto the End. — (1) To the uttermost limit of love, 
the greatest love known in the universe ; and (2) with a love without 
end. God's love never changes, never ceases, any more than the sun 
ceases to shine, although men may hide in caves and dungeons from its 
light. He foresaw Peter's denials, but he loved on ; he foresaw that all 
the twelve would forsake him and flee from his danger within a few 
hours, but he loved them still ; he foresaw the treachery of Judas, but 



XIII : I ST. JOHN 359 

he did not cease to love him, but sought again and «^« 
again in these remaining hours to save him, — lie 
washed his feet, he warned him, he gave him the sop 
from the table. 



They sin who tell us Love can die. 

But love is indestructible ; 

Its holy flame forever burnetii ; 

From heaven it came, to heaven returneth. 

Too oft on earth a troubled guest, 

At times deceived, at times oppressed, 

It here is tried and purified, 

Then hath in heaven its perfect rest ; 

It soweth here with toil and care, 

But the harvest-time of Love is there." 



A. J>. 30. 

April 6, 

Ttuirsday Eve. 

THE EVENING 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

JERUSALEM. 

The L,ord's 

Supper. 



Robert Sonthey, Curse of Kehama, 10:10. 



Loved Once. — 

" And who saith, * I loved once ' ? 
Not angels — whose clear eyes love, love foresee, 

Love through eternity, 
And by To Love do apprehend To Be. 
Not God, called Love, His noble crown-name casting 

A light too broad for blasting ! 
The great God, changing not from everlasting, 
Saith never, ' I loved once.' 

" Oh, never is ' Loved once ' 
Thy word, Thou victim Christ, misprized friend ! 

Thy cross and curse may rend, 
But, having loved, Thou lovest to the end. 
This, man's saying — man's. Too weak to move 

One sphered star above, 
Man desecrates the eternal God- word Love 

By his No More and Once. 

" How say ye, ' We loved once ' ? 
Blasphemers ! Is your earth not cold enow, 

Mourners, without that snow ? 
Ah, friends ! and would ye wrong each other so ? 
And could ye say of some whose love is known, — 

Whose prayers have met your own, 
Whose tears have fallen for you, whose smiles have shone 

So long,—' We loved them once ' ? 



360 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : 2-$ 

2. And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas 
Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him ; 

3. Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he 
was come from God, and went to God ; 

4. He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and 
girded himself, 

5. After that he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, 
and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. 

" Say never ye loved once. 
God is too near above, the grave beneath, 

And all our moments breathe 
Too quick in mysteries of life and death, 
For such a word. The eternities avenge 

Affections light of range. 
There comes no change to justify that change, 

Whatever comes, Loved once ! 

" And yet that same word once 
Is humanly acceptive. Kings have said, 

Shaking a discrowned head, 
' We ruled once ; ' dotards, ' We once taught and led.' 
Cripples once danced i' the vines, and bards approved 

Were once by scornings moved ? 
But love strides one hour — love ! Those never loved 

Who dream that they loved once." — Mrs. E. B. Browning. 



2. Supper Being Ended, 8e£irvov -ycvofie'vov, supper having been begun, 
or having been served. The approved reading is "yivo^vov, supper being, 
i. e. , during supper. 

The Conflict. — " It is always the darkest side of the unseen world 
that a thoughtful child of God seems to imagine, when he reads such a 
story as this. How these two verses (2 and 3) display the contrasts of 
Christian life and exposure! Here are the two kings of the antagonistic 
kingdoms, Immanuel and Satan. A group of mortal souls is in the 
conflict; ten loving friends, one unsuspecting coward, one already 
pledged enemy. See these motives; love in Jesus' heart, treachery and 
hate in Satan's." — Sunday School Times. 



The Devil Put Into the Heart, Etc. — " There was still hope for 
Judas, since he was not so utterly lost as to plan his treachery all by 
himself. Satan opened the door, and Judas, looking in at the riches to 
which it opened, walked into the trap. Satan was the sower of the seed, 



XIII: 2-5 ST. JOHN 361 



but Judas had for a long time been preparing the soil 
of his heart to receive the evil seed, or it could not 
have sprung up. Through his love of money and 
through anger at the reproof of Jesus for complaining 
of Mary's waste of ointment (compare John 12 : 4-7 
with Matt. 26 : 14-16) the suggestion of Satan may 
have come. 

"The fact that Satan suggests evil to our minds 
does not impair our responsibility, since the thought, 
feeling, purpose, is consciously and freely our own." — 
Dr. Broaclus. 



A. ». 30. 

April 6, 
Thursday Eve. 

THE EVENING 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

JERUSALEM. 
Washing 
the Disci- 
ples' Feet. 



-* 



5. Began to Wash the Disciples' Feet. — It is only by realizing that 
this act of Jesus was not an assumed humility, but the performance of 
a real and needed service for the comfort of others, that we can rightly 
understand the lesson Jesus intended to teach. 

" Where sandals are worn, the dust will gather upon the feet quickly; 
so that one coming from the public bath to his house might need to 
have his feet washed as he entered his home. Even where shoes or high 
boots are worn, there is still need of very frequent feet- washing, both 
from the penetrating character of dust, and from the heat of the 
climate. It is a requirement of hospitality to proffer water for the 
washing of the feet to any guest entering one's home." — Sunday 
School Times. 

"Commonly it is a servant who performs this duty; although the 
host will render this service as a token of special honor to a distin- 
guished guest. " But the disciples had no servant and were unwilling 
to do this humble service for one another. 

Thus they sat down to the meal without having their feet washed, 
after a hot and dusty walk. The Oriental bowl and pitcher make it 
difficult for one to wash his own feet, so that the disciples should have 
done it for one another, since they had no servants to do it for them. 
Jesus gave them ample time to come to a better mind. He waited till 
they were seated. Then He arose and performed the menial service 
Himself. No wonder that the conscience-smitten disciples were amazed, 
and that Peter could not endure that Jesus should wash his feet. 



A Foot- washing Ceremony at Vienna. — " It was our good fortune 
to secure admittance to the celebrated ' Fusswaschung,' a semi-religious 
court ceremony, held annually on Holy Thursday in the royal palace. 
At half-past eight o'clock Thursday morning we betook ourselves to the 
palace. Sentinels, of course, met us at every turn, and ascending the 
staircase, we passed between two lines of the palace guard, tall and 



362 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : ?-% 

imposing in black uniforms and black-plumed helmets, and then 
between long lines of the emperor's guards — magnificent in their red 
and gold uniforms and white, waving plumes. Finally we were ushered 
into the grand ceremonial hall, brilliant with many crystal 
chandeliers, and furnished on two sides with steps upon which 
we were to stand, and on a third side with a series of boxes for the 
diplomatic corps. The floor of the hall was clear, save for a 
raised platform along one side upon which stood twelve chairs, and a 
long table laid with bright and handsome plates, mugs and tankards — 
the white cloth being strewn with rose petals. 

" Shortly after 10 o'clock the floor began to fill with score upon score 
of officers in full uniform, from the different regiments of the kingdom, 
making a brilliant and imposing scene. In the assemblage were many 
of the most distinguished members of the Austro-Hungarian court, 
including ministers of state, archdukes, generals of infantry and cavalry 
and vice-admirals of the war fleet. Chatting with officers in gold- 
embroidered blue and scarlet uniforms were knights of Malta with 
white cross on sleeve and breast, Hungarians with high yellow boots 
and leopard's skin thrown over the left shoulder, and in marked contrast 
to these the Polish aristocrats in flowing robes of black mourning for 
their lost kingdom. In the royal box above were the ladies of the 
court. At half-past ten the clergy entered the room, followed by the 
twelve oldest poor men of Vienna (for whom the service is performed), 
dressed in old German costume— black, with white cape collars and 
knee breeches. 

' ' The emperor wore the uniform of a general of infantry, and took 
his "place at once at the head of the table, making the number thirteen, 
while in the rear stood thirteen of his body guard. Then appeared from 
an ante-room twelve of the nobility, each carrying a tray containing 
the first course of a feast to be served to the kaiser's guests. The dishes 
were all placed upon the table by the emperor himself, but no sooner 
had he done this than with the assistance of his brother and the arch- 
dukes, he replaced them upon trays held by the thirteen guards who 
removed them. It seemed a little hard on the old men to see the tempt- 
ing viands so quickly taken away, but we learned later that each one 
received at his home the food and dishes as well, which were made for 
this occasion, as it had been found that the dinner was much more 
enjoyed in this way than before such a grand assemblage. The repast 
was beautifully prepared and handsomely garnished, served in four 
courses, each presented and removed in the manner described, after 
which the tables were taken away. 

" Footmen then removed the shoes and stockings from the old men, 
and spread over their knees a long white linen roll, after which the 



XIII :6, 7 ST. JOHN 363 



6. Then Cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saiih uuto 
him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? 

7. Jesus answered and said unto him, "What I do thou 
knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. 



A. D. 30. 

April 6. 
Thursday Eve. 

THE EVENING 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

JERUSALEM. 
Washing 
the Disci- 
ples' Feet. 



chaplain began the gospel for the day. At the words 
et ccepit lavare pedes discipidorum, the emperor knelt 
and began the ceremony of the ' foot- washing/ one 
prelate holding a basin while another poured the ^* *5* 

water. The emperor continued kneeling until he had performed this 
service of humility for each of the twelve, after which he took from a 
salver, silken bags, each containing thirty pieces of silver, and hung one 
about the neck of each of the old men. This ended the service, but we 
lingered long enough to see these honored guests assisted to the royal 
carriages to be sent home in the care of members of the kaiser's body 
guard, carrying the sizable wooden chest of provisions and a large flask 
of wine. When the empress is at home she performs a similar service 
for the twelve oldest poor women of Vienna, but in case she is not, as 
happened this year, they are not present at the ceremonial, but receive 
at their home an equal share of the royal bounty." — Correspondent of 
Springfield Republican, April, 1896. 



The Feet of Judas.— 

11 Christ washed the feet of Judas ! 

Yet all his lurking sin was bare to him ; 
His bargain with the priest ; and, more than this, 

In Olivet, beneath the moonlight dim, 
Afore was known and felt his treacherous kiss. 

" Christ washed the feet of Judas ! 

And thus a girded servant, self-abased, 
Taught that no wrong this side the gate of Heaven 

Was e'er too great to wholly be effaced, 
And, tho' unasked, in spirit be forgiven." 

— Geo. M. McGlellan. 



7. Thou Knowest Not Now, but Thou Shalt Know Hereafter. 
— The wonderful pictures on the tapestries that have adorned the walls 
of palaces have been woven by hand on simple looms from woolen 
threads. As I stood before one of the most famous of the Aubusson 
tapestries, I asked the attendant to show me the other side. It was a 
tangle of threads and thrums and ends, a confused mystery of colors, 



364 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : 6, 7 

without order or meaning or beauty, and resembling the picture on the 
other side as little as the tuning of an organ resembles the oratorio of 
the Messiah. And yet the artist stands behind his web, on this reverse 
side, while he is making the picture. The pattern is before him. The 
materials are by his side. He weaves them in according to the pattern, 
but without seeing the charming picture that is coming into being. So 
we are weaving our lives largely on the reverse side. There are many 
things in each of our lives of which we do not know the meaning now, 
but we shall know hereafter. Some time Goi will show us the right 
side of the life we are slowly weaving, and we shall behold the lovely 
and radiant picture he has been planning for us. Christ says to us as 
he said to Peter, "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt 
know hereafter." No one ever yet at the beginning of life knew the 
full meaning and possibilities of his life. But at length God will show 
us the right side of the picture which our life has been weaving, so 
beautiful, of such exquisite glory and blessedness, that I sometimes 
think the first thing we will do when we reach Heaven, will be to go 
straight to the Lord, and bowing down at His feet cry out, Lord, for- 
give all our murmurings at our lot, and take our inmost thanks for the 
way in which Thou didst lead us, and the plan of life Thou didst prepare 
for us. 



Library. — The poem • « The Weaver," Suggestive Illustrations on Mat- 
thew, p. 413. One saw a weaver of tapestry weaving, in his web of life, 
all kinds of living pictures and experiences. There were dark threads 
as well as bright, and tears stained the web. The weaver died — 

" And after, I saw, in a robe of light, 
That weaver in the sky ; 
The angels' wings were not more bright, 
The stars grew pale, it nigh. 

" And wherever a tear had fallen down 
Gleamed out a diamond rare, 
And jewels befitting a monarch's crown 
Were the footprints left by care. 

" And wherever had swept the breath of a sigh 
Was left a rich perfume, 
And with light from the fountain of bliss in the sky 
Shone the labor of sorrow and gloom." 



The Eagle and Rivers. — " Problems however dark, details how- 
ever intricate, become lucid and orderly in the light of eternal distinc- 



XIII : 6, 7 ST. john 365 

tion. The eagle which soars through the air does not 
worry itself how to cross the rivers. " — Farrar. 



A. D. 30. 

April 6, 
Thursday Eve. 

The Mystery of the Quarry. — Had the stone in the evening 

, ,, , , BEFORE THE 

the quarry a consciousness, its treatment there would crucifixion. 
be a perpetual mystery. Why was it blasted away Jerusalem. 
from its native home? why was it subjected to so uufiJilcf- 
many blows of the hammer? why was it irritated by pies' Feet. 
the sands in its polishing? why was one part left 
rough, and another polished like glass ; one part 
left plain, and another carved into curious and beautiful ornaments ? 
Only when it found its place in the temple could it understand 
its treatment in the quarry. This world is a quarry where the 
living stones of God's beautiful temple in the heavens, the com- 
pleted and perfected church, are being shaped and polished for their 
places in the building. There are cares and burdens and losses, and 
sickness, and pain, and poverty, of which we cannot know the mean- 
ing till we see in heaven the place for which God is fitting us. The 
spiritual temple in the heavens is the solution of many a mystery of 
Providence in this world. 



Bunyan in Prison, and the Pilgrim's Progress. — Bunyan in his 
prison could not understand why God should thus allow him to be shut 
out from his work for the best twelve years of his life, his soul longing 
to preach the gospel, and thousands waiting to hear him. He could 
not then see, what now is plain, that by the " Pilgrim's Progress " he 
there wrote, he has been preaching to millions instead of thousands, 
and for centuries instead of years. 

The A-BCof Life. — We in this life are like children in the primary 
school studying the alphabet. They are perplexed and burdened, 
and kept from play, and compelled to study, but they have no concep- 
tion of the joys and glories of the literature worked out by means of 
those simple letters. So we in the narrow schooihouse of life are 
learning the A B C's of existence, and can have little conception of the 
heights of character, the heavenly beatitudes, the spiritual glories which 
these letters of sorrows and of joys can spell for us in the future. 

Library. — Mrs. Browning's Poems, " Perplexed Music." 



Harvard Memorial Hall. — In the Memorial Hall at Harvard Uni- 
versity there is a wonderful array of beautiful sentences frescoed on 
the walls in various colors, but they are all in Latin. And it is said 



366 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : 6, 7 

that some of the workmen did now know the meaning of the sentences 
they painted, but could only put the letters and the colors on the walls 
as they were told, without understanding the wondrous meaning 
wrapped up in them. So we are often writing our lives in an unknown 
tongue ; we can only do as we are bidden ; but in due time there will be 
read out in some heavenly language a biography we never dreamed was 
ours, full of glory and blessing. 



The Opened Letter. — ' ' Christ comes to us in this way ; not to take 
away the mysteries, but to enlighten us concerning them. A mystery 
is not anything obscure in itself, it is simply something we do not know. 
I give you a letter sealed. What it contains is a mystery. Break the 
seal and read the letter and it ceases to be a mystery. The letter is the 
same, you are the same, only the letter has been opened. But you may 
not be able to read the letter, because it may be written in a language 
with which you are not familiar. Learn the language and then you 
can read it. But perhaps the letter may have it in technical terms ; 
learn their meaning and after a while it all becomes plain. That is the 
way with the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven. As soon as we need 
them and are ready to listen to one who can teach them, then they are 
revealed to us." — Alexander McKenzie, D. D. 



The Story op "Hands Off." — Edward Everett Hale's charming 
story of " Hands Off," in bis Christmas in a Palace, represents a man in 
another stage of existence, looking down upon Joseph as he is in the 
hands of the Midianites. Being an active, ingenious young man, Joseph 
succeeded in escaping from his captors on the first night of 
his captivity, and had just reached the outer limits of the Story of 
camp when a yellow dog barked, awakened his captors, Hands Off. 
and Joseph was returned to his captivity. But the onlooker 
wanted to interfere and kill the dog before he had awakened the camp. 
Then Joseph would have reached home in safety, and great sorrows 
have been avoided. But his guardian said, "Hands Off." And to let 
him see the evil of his interference, took him to a world where he could 
try his experiment. There he killed the dog. Joseph reached home in 
safety, his father rejoiced, his brothers were comforted. But when the 
famine came, there had been no Joseph to lay up the corn. Palestine 
and Egypt were starved. Great numbers died, and the rest were so 
weakened that they were destroyed by the savage Hittites. Civiliza- 
tion was destroyed. Egypt blotted out. Greece and Rome remained in 
a barbarous state. The whole history of the world was changed, and 
countless evils came because a man in his ignorant wisdom killed a dog 
and saved Joseph from present trouble to his future loss. 



XIII: 8-1 1 ST. JOHN 367 



8. Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. 
Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with 
me. 

9. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet ouly, but 
also my hands and my head. 

10. Jesus saith unto him, He that is washed needeth not save 
to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but 
not all . 

11. For he knew who should betray him ; therefore said he, 
Ye are not all clean. 



A.D. 30. 

April 6, 
Thursday Eve. 

THE EVENING 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

JERUSALEM. 
Washing 
the Disci- 
ples' Feet. 



Wait and See. — " ' I never let bairns or fools see my pictures until 
they are done,' said a Scotch artist to me once, quoting a familiar 
proverb of his countrymen. We are all but bairns in God's sight, and 
we sadly play the fool in regard to His providential dealings. As no 
artist is willing to have judgment pronounced upon painting or statue 
until the work is completed, so our heavenly Teacher bids us possess our 
souls in patience. ' What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt 
know hereafter.' We must wait and see. This world is but the pre- 
paratory school, in which character is on the easel or under the chisel ; 
exhibition day will come in another world, God's hand lays on dark 
colors very often ; His chisel cuts deep. No trial of our faith is joyous, 
but grievous ; nevertheless, afterward, it may work out the eternal 
weight of glory." — Anon. 



10. He That is Washed Needeth Not Save to Wash His Feet. — 
" They had just come from the bath, probably a public one, whither 
they had all gone to prepare for the feast. It may have been near, or it 
may have been at some distance; but in any case they had walked some 
way in their sandals along the streets of Jerusalem. It is not a very 
cleanly city; no Eastern town is. One could not go far along its streets 
without being smirched by its mire more or less, or at the very least 
being soiled by its dust. They had come clean from the bath, then, but 
their feet had suffered in their walk from it to the upper chamber. 
Apparently they had not felt any discomfort from this. It was not so 
bad as to cause any inconvenience to them. But still the mire or the 
dust was there, and Jesus was fain to have them clean every whit. He 
did not spy out their defilement, nor did He seek to point it out, but 
He was anxious to cleanse it away. All they needed for this was that 
their feet should be washed, and that service He was now fain to do 
them, lowly as it was. 

"I have said that this act of Christ pointed to a deeper, even an 
inward, spiritual cleansing; and beautiful as it was in itself, it is this 



368 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : 12-1$ 

12. So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set 
down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? 

13. Ye call me Master and Lord : aud ye say well ; for so I am. 

14. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet ; ye also ought to 
wash one another's feet. 

15. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. 

spiritual aspect of it which is of niost importance to us. In this higher 
province, too, I wish to note that the bath is one thing, and the basin is 
another. There is a whole washing, which is of chief moment, and 
there is a feet- washing, which has also to be seen to. The 
first is ■ the washing of regeneration and renewal of the The Bath 
Holy Ghost,' of which we may truly say that he who has and the 
not received it ' hath no part with Christ ' ' If any man be Basin, 
in Christ, he is a new creature; old things have passed away; 
behold, all things have become new.' That is the bath which makes 
him clean every whit, ' for he is washed, for he is justified, for he is 
sanctified,' and his sins which were as scarlet are now white as snow. 
But we do not go very far along the world's miry ways before oar white 
garments begin to be spotted, and our feet to be soiled. We do not 
walk there long undefined. Ere many days pass we need another 
cleansing. It is not the whole washing of regeneration. That does not 
require to be done over again. 

' ' Yet even if we do not a second time need that washing of the whole 
man, we do require our feet to be cleansed, and that again and again, 
for we often slip, we often err, we often stumble into miry ways, we 
often sorrowfully defile ourselves. Not once in a way, but constantly, 
we need to be forgiven, and to get a new start with a fresh sense of the 
grace of Christ Jesus. Therefore is He always waiting with the basin 
and the towel to cleanse us, because He loved us from the beginning, 
and loves us to the end. O His wonderful patience ! " — Walter G. Smith, 
D. D., in the Expositor, April, 1893. 



14. Ye Ought Also to Wash One Another's Feet. — We are to 
imitate not the form, but the spirit of Christ. One may do exactly, in 
other circumstances, what another has done, and yet entirely fail of imi- 
tating his example, because all that made it of value is left out. It is a 
dead body without the soul. To go through a ceremonial of washing, 
others' feet, as of Thursday in Holy Week in Rome, when the Pope 
" washes the feet of a few aged paupers, after due private preparation, 
in the presence of the proudest rank," is not to do as Christ did at this 
time. Jesus did not institute a rite, but showed us the true spirit. He 
simply did an humble, disagreeable, but necessary duty which His disci- 



XIII : 12-15 ST - J 0HN 3^ 



pies neglected to do. He that does the humblest service * ■ 

in order to relieve the wants of others, or cleanse their A. D. 30. 

souls from sin; he that forgets himself and seeks no April b 

. ■, i ^ i 1 Thursday Eve. 

honor, no high place, but only to serve and to help, THE EVENING 
and seeks out the poor, the sick, the obscure, the un- before the 

popular, in order to be their friend and helper — he JERUSALEM, 
does to them as Christ did to the disciples. ' Washing; 

tlie Disei- 
pies' Feet. 

Examples. — Love to God and love to men trans- •%> ^ 

figure the commonest service, as a gray and dreary 
cloud is transfigured by the rays of the setting sun. Much that a 
mother does for her child, a doctor or nurse for his patients, is very 
lowly service, that would be hard and repulsive but for love. It was 
such service that made the names of Florence Nightingale, John 
Howard, and many others shine like stars in the sky. 



Lochs Katrine and Thirlmere, and the City Water Works.— 
It is very interesting to note that two of the most beautiful and roman- 
tic lakes in the world are also the most useful in every day life. Thirl- 
mere in the lake country of England, embowered among the lovely 
hills, whose shores have been trod by Wordsworth, and Coleridge, and 
Lord North, is the water supply of the great city of Manchester. Loch 
Katrine, embowered among the highlands of Scotland, a poem in 
water, immortalized in story and song till it seems almost transfigured 
with a glory beyond its natural beauty and charm, is yet the source of 
the water supply of the city of Glasgow. The waters of these lakes 
flow down among the homes of the poor, cleansing the filth from the 
streets, bringing refreshment, cheer, comfort, cleanliness, and health 
everywhere. So to every one who has the living water — and all the 
more if it is possessed amid wealth, culture, education, talent — is given 
the privilege of sending that living water in copious streams to the poor, 
the unfortunate, the lonely, the sick ; to those who are perishing with- 
out the gospel. To perform disagreeable but necessary work for the 
humblest, is more Christ-like and heavenly than merely to abide in the 
charming regions of poetry and beauty. 



The Angels in the Kitchen. — " In one of Murillo's pictures in the 
Louvre he shows us the interior of a convent kitchen ; but doing the 
work there are not winged mortals in old dresses, but beautiful white 
winged angels. One serenely puts the kettle on the fire to boil, and one 
is lifting up a pail of water with heavenly grace, and one is at the 
kitchen dresser reaching for plates. What the old monkish legend that 



370 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : 12-15 

it represents is, I do not know. But, as the painter puts it to you on 
his canvas, all are busy, and working with such a will, and so refining 
the work as they do it, that somehow you forget that pans are pans, 
and pots, pots, and only think of the angels, and how very natural and 
beautiful kitchen work is — just what the angels would do, of course. 
It is the angel aim and standard in an act that consecrate it." — W. C. 
Gannett, in Blessed be Drudgery. 



Library. — See the poem, in Suggestive Illustrations on the Acts, 
beginning : 

" If the dear Lord should send an angel down, 
A seraph radiant in robes of light, 
To do some menial service in our streets, 

As breaking stone, we'll say, from morn till night — 
Think you the faintest blush would rise 

To mar the whiteness of his holy face ? 
Think you a thought of discontent would find 
Within his perfect heart abiding place?" 

To wash one another's feet is, in the deeper meaning of the thing, to 
help one another out of the evil that is in the world, to aid one another 
in the keeping of a clear conscience and of a wholesome and holy life." 
— /. Marshall Lang, D. D. 

1 ' The true calling of a Christian is not to do extraordinary things, but 
to do ordinary things in an extraordinary way. The most trivial tasks can 
be accomplished in a noble, gentle, regal spirit, which overrides and puts 
aside all petty, paltry feelings, and which elevates all things.-" — Dean 
Stanley." 

" The highest duties oft are found 
Lying on the lowest ground ; 
In hidden and unnoticed ways, 
In household works, on common days." — Monsell. 



Fable from Plato. — " The truest nobility is sometimes found in the 
most common-place lives. Some one refers to a fable used by Plato, 
illustrating this fact. He said spirits of the other world came back to 
this world to find a body and find a sphere of work. One spirit came 
and took the body of a king, and did his work. Another spirit came 
and took the body of a poet, and did his work. After a while Ulysses 
came, and he said, 'Why, all the fine bodies are taken, and all the 



XIII : 12-15 ST. JOHN 371 



grand work is taken. There is nothing left for me.' 
And some one replied, ' Ah ! the best one has been left 
for you.' Ulysses said, ' "What's that ? ' And the reply 
was, ' The body of a common man, doing a common 
work, and for a common reward."' — T. DeWitt Tal- 
mage, D. D. 



A servant with this clause 

Makes drudgery divine ; 
Who sweeps a room as for Thy law3 

Makes that and the action fine." — Geo. Herbert. 



A. D. 30. 

April 6, 
Thursday Eve. 

THE EVENING 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

JERUSALEM. 
Washing 
the Disci- 
ples' Feet. 

. A, 



King Humbert of Italy Visiting the Sick. — A few years ago the 
cholera raged at Naples. It was confined to the lowest and poorest 
parts of the town, and, because of this very fact, a mad rage took pos- 
session of the plague-stricken populace. 'Any person of better for- 
tunes who went down among them from the better part of the town did 
so almost at the peril of his life. They resented the very prosperity that 
strove to help them. For instance, there was a Greek, with a long 
purse and a kind heart, who drove down among them every day. carry- 
ing broths and wines and medicines for the sick and he actually had 
to hire them to take these things which his pity had provided. Finally 
they grew so mad and desperate in their misery, that the very thought 
that he was able to come and bring them succor enraged them, and they 
fell upon him one day and mobbed him, and killed his horses, and 
broke his carriage to pieces, and he barely escaped with his life. A riot 
was imminent, and Naples would have been given over to unutterable 
horrors, but just then Humbert, king of Italy, went to Naples and 
entered the plague-stricken quarters of the city and the hospitals. ' But 
why did they not mob him, as they did the Greek?' asked a hearer. 
'He, too, was prosperous, and well, and rich.' 'Yes; but he came 
among them as one of themselves. He shared their dangers. He spent 
his days in their poor hovels. He spoke to them in then own Neapolitan 
patois. He nursed their sick. He held them in his arms when they 
were dying. He wept over them when they were dead. He was their 
brother in their sorrow, and the bitterness melted out of their hearts, 
and they were ready to do his bidding like little children.' " 



Picture. — Murillo's famous painting of the Angels in the Kitchen, 
called also " The Miracle of San Diego," in the Louvre. 

Library. — Gannet's "Blessed be Drudgery," in Faith that Makes 
Faithful. The story of Abraham and the unbeliever, in Stanley's Jewish 



372 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : 12-15 

Church. Smith's Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, article on 
" Maundy Thursday." Prof Eli's Social Law of Service has several 
good illustrations. Lowell's Poems, " The Vision of Sir Launfal." 



15. I Have Given You an Example. — " There are two ways of imita- 
ting the example of another person. One is to imitate the form of his 
example, the other to imitate his spirit. One may do exactly, in other 
circumstances, what another has done, and yet entirely fail of imita- 
ting his example, because all that made it of value is left out. It is 
a dead body without the soul. 

" The young painter studies great masters, not that he may reproduce 
their pictures ; it is their inner principles he must imitate. It is not 
their paintings but themselves he is to imitate. To reproduce what is 
of value in any copy, model, or pattern, we must imbibe and assimilate 
the principles and ideas, the very life and spirit, which went to the 
original production." — Marcus Dods. 



Example, {nroSeiYjia, something shown by being placed under or 
before the eyes, hence a representation, figure, copy ; to be imitated, an 
example. 

Jesus thus practically says : 

" I give you the end of a golden string : 
Only wind it into a ball, — 
It will lead you into heaven's gate 
Built in Jerusalem's wall." 



Artist or Artisan. — Following Jesus in doing humble service, 
reaching after His Ideal, and seeking to make it our Real, changes us 
from Artisans into Artists in our life's work. " The Artist is he who 
strives to perfect his work, the Artisan strives to get through it." The 
Artist loves his work for itself ; the Artisan does his work for the sake 
of what it will enable him to do in other things. 

It was Michael Angelo who said : " Nothing makes the soul so pure, 
so religious, as the endeavor to create something perfect : for God is 
perfection, and whoever strives for it strives for something that is God- 
like. True painting is only an image of God's perfection, — a shadow 
of the pencil with which he paints, a melody, a striving after harmony. " 

To help make men better, purer, cleaner, to help perfect them in the 
image of God, to bring them into the joy and beauty of holiness is 
" Artist's " work. 



XIII : 1 6-2 1 ST. JOHN 373 

* 



A. ». 30. 

April o, 

Thursday Ere. 

THE EVENING 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

JERUSALEM. 



16. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater 
than his lord ; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent 
him. 

17. If ye know these things, happy are ye if you do them. 

18. ^i I speak not of you all : I know whom I have chosen : 
but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread 
with me hath lifted up his heel against me. Warning 

19. Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to | to Judas. 
pass, ye may believe that I am Tie. •{• 

20. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whom- 
soever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. 

21. When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, 
Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. 

The Working Artists. — Cardinal Wiseman, in a lecture given a 
few years ago, said that the reason why the arts attained so high a 
degree of perfection in the Middle Ages was because the men who had 
the mind to design and conceive worked out their ideas with their 
own hands. Labor did not degrade them ; they exalted labor. Raphael, 
Angelo, Cellini, did their own work. Thus on the shrine of St. Sebald 
at Nuremberg, a piece of work so exquisitely beautiful that no icono- 
clasm dared to touch it, is portrayed the artist, Peter Yischer, with 
his apron on, and with chisel and maJlet in his hands. 



Washing One Another's Feet. — Even Christians who are cleansed 
in the fountain opened for sin sometimes soil their feet in walking 
the dusty way of life. "Do their sins never escape your notice? and 
do you never think of covering them with the cloak of charity, or 
lovingly plead with the erring ones to amend their ways? Do you 
never feel that their conduct may have given you an opportunity to 
take the basin, and follow the example of Jesus? It would be better 
for you, as well as for them, if you read the lesson of your Master in 
that sense. It would make a more beautiful Christian world if, instead 
of the fault-finding and evil-speaking which abound in it, we were all 
only careful to heal our neighbor's backslidings — to wash the feet of 
the disciples/'— Walter C. Smith, D. D. 



" Get close to the seller of perfumes if you want to be fragrant." 
Rabbinical Sayings. 



He That Eateth With Me Lifted Up His Heel Against Me. — 
"The depth of infamy to which he sank who, having eaten bread or 
food of any kind with a man, should subsequently injure him, or betray 



374 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : l6-2I 

him into the hands of his enemies, it is not easy for us Westerners to 
fathom The sacred character of the ancient unwritten law which 
identifies the interests of those who have partaken together of food, and 
pledges them to mutual protection, even to the cost of life, has never 
been denied, and its authority is unimpaired. Judas was bound by the 
most solemn obligations to defend his Master ; and the revulsion of 
feeling when he realized the pit of disgrace into which he had fallen 
goes far to explain his passionate suicide. The following may be taken 
as illustrating the loyalty of the Orient to the old kindly custom. A 
traveler is explaining to his host the difference between Western and East- 
ern customs in eating. 'But how,' asked the host, ' would you do an 
ikram to a guest (an act of honor and regard)?' 'Now, we do this,' 
he said, as he detached a piece of roast mutton with his ringers, and 
passed it to me, which I took with my fingers from his and ate. ' Now, 
do you know what I have done ? ' ' Perfectly well ; you have given me 
a delicious piece of roast meat, and I have eaten it.' 'You have gone 
very far from it. By that act I have pledged you every drop of my 
blood that, while you are in my territory, no evil shall come to you. 
For that space we are brothers.' " — Rev. William Ewing, in the Sunday- 
School Times for 1895. 

Library. — Trumbull's Blood Covenant, and his Studies in Oriental 
Social Life. 



21. One of You Shall Betray Me. 

Library. — Shakespeare's account of Brutus killing Caesar, his most 
intimate friend : 

" For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel I 
This was the most unkindest cut of all ; 
For when the noble Caesar saw him stab, 
Ingratitude, more strong than traitor's arms, 
Quite vanquished him ; then burst his mighty heart." 



Showing Judas His Own Portrait. — One object of these words of 
Christ seems to have been to save Judas by showing him his own char- 
acter as in a mirror. 

When Livingston was in the heart of Africa he found tribes who had 
never seen a mirror. In his looking-glass the savages saw their faces 
for the first time, and were astonished at their own ugliness. 

Judas could have seen reflected back the face of a traitor, and a 
breaker of " the covenant of salt," and the pictures should have made 
him recoil in horror from his proposed deed. 



XIII -.22-30 ST. john 375 



A. D. 30. 

April 6, 
Thursday Eve. 

THE EVENING 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

JERUSALEM. 
Warning 
to Judas. 



22. Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of 
whom he spake. 

23. Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disci- 
ples, whom Jesus loved. 

24. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should 
ask who it should be of whom he spake. 

25. He then lying on Jesus' breast saith unto him, Lord, who 
is it? 

26. Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, 
when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he 
gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. 

27. And after the sop, Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That 
thou doest, do quickly. 

28. Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him. 

29. For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said 
unto him, Buy those things that we have need of against the feast; or, that he 
should give something to the poor. 

30. He then, having received the sop, went immediately out; and it was night. 

Historic Examples of the Judas Character. — " The false disciple 
was a sentimental, plausible, self-deceived pietist, who knew and 
approved the good, though not conscientiously practicing it ; one who, in 
aesthetic feeling, in fancy, and in intellect, had affinities for the noble and 
the holy, while in will and in conduct he was the slave of base, 
selfish passions ; one who, in the last resource, would always put self 
uppermost, yet could zealously devote himself to well-doing when per- 
sonal interests were not compromised. In thus describing Judas, we 
draw not the picture of a solitary monster. Men of such type are by no 
means so rare as some may imagine. History, sacred and profane, 
supplies numerous examples of them, playing an important part in 
human affairs. Balaam, who had the vision of a prophet 
and the soul of a miser, was such a man. Robespierre, the Robe- 
evil genius of the French Revolution, was another. The spierre. 
man who sent thousands to the guillotine had, in his 
younger days, resigned his office as a provincial judge, because it was 
against his conscience to pronounce sentence of death on a culprit 
found guilty of a capital offense. A third example, more remarkable 
than either, may be found in the famous Greek Alcibiades, who, to 
unbounded ambition, unscrupulousness, and licentiousness, united a 
warm attachment to the greatest and best of the Greeks. 
The man who in after years betrayed the cause of his Alcibiades. 
native city, and went over to the side of her enemies, was 
in his youth an enthusiastic admirer and disciple of Socrates. How 
he felt towards the Athenian sage may be gathered from words put 



Ij6 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : 22-jO 

into his mouth by Plato in one of his dialogues, — words which invol- 
untarily suggest a parallel between the speaker and the unworthy fol- 
lower of a greater than Socrates: "I experience towards this man 
alone (Socrates) what no one would believe me capable of : a sense of 
shame. For I am conscious of an inability to contradict him, and 
decline to do what he bids me ; and when I go away, I feel myself 
overcome by the desire of popular esteem. Therefore I flee from him, 
and avoid him. But when I see him, I am ashamed of my admissions, and 
oftentimes I would be glad if he ceased to exist among the living ; 
and yet I know well, that were that to happen, I should be still more 
grieved.' " — Prof. A. B. Bruce, in The Training of the Twelve. 



26. To Whom I Shall Give a Sop. —"Knives, forks, and plates for 
each guest were unknown. Often as I have been entertained in houses 
or under tents, the custom never varied. A great circular dish, gen- 
erally wooden, and shallow, with a rim not more than two 
or three inches deep, was piled with wheat, rice, or vege- Oriental 
tables, over which was spread the lamb or poultry that had Dinner 
been boiled for our entertainment, and upon this was Customs, 
poured the broth in which it had been boiled, and then the 
whole sprinkled with capsicum, savory, and bitter herbs, and sometimes 
dried apricots. Into the broth the guests simultaneously dip a morsel 
of the meat which they have torn off with the thumb and two fore- 
fingers of the right hand, or it may be, gather up the broth with morsels 
of barley cake." — Canon Tristram. 



27. And After the Sop Satan Entered into Him. — The giving of 
the sop was the last warning that Jesus could give to Judas, the last 
obstacle in his way to ruin. 

" Some of you may have seen the celebrated painting by Retzsch, in 
which, with wondrous skill, he has portrayed a game of chess between 
Satan and a young man, who has staked his soul on the issue. The 
truth and vivid power of the representation ; the different expression in 
the faces of the players ; the gay, heedless look of the young man, all 
unconscious of his peril ; and the cunning, hellish leer of the Fiend, as 
the chances seemed to turn in his favor, can never be forgotten by 
any who have once beheld them. But how much more graphic 
and solemn is the scene which the Divine pencil has drawn — Christ 
and Satan battling for the soul of man! Nor is it picture merely ; it is 
real. The contest is actually going forward, going forward now, going 
forward in your own spiritual history. Intrenched within your heart, 



XIII: 3 i-35 ST. JOHN 377 



A. ». 30. 

April 6, 

Thursday Eve, 

THE EVENING 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

JERUSALEM. 
Warning 
to Judas. 



31. ^! Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is 
the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 

32. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in 
himself, and shall straightway glorify him. 

33. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall 
seek me; and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot 
come ; so now I say to you. 

34. A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one 
another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 

35. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye 
have love one to another. 



• the Prince of the Power of the Air' plies all his weapons of falsehood 
and delusion and worldly enchantments to maintain his fatal mastery 
over you ; while at the door stands the crucified One — pity in His eye 
and salvation in His hands — summoning you to thrust out the deceiver, 
and yield the palace to the sweet control of His love." — G. B. Ide, D. D. 



34. A New Commandment, That Ye Love One Another.— It is 
related by Jerome, that when St. John became old, he used to go 
around among the churches and assemblies, and everywhere repeat the 
words, " Little children, love one another. " It is related that the dis- 
ciples of the apostle, wearied by his constant repetition of the words, 
" Little children, love one another," which was all he said when he was 
often carried into their assembly, asked him why he always said this. 
" Because," he replied, "it is the Lord's commandment ; and if it only 
be fulfilled, it is enough." 



Love Like the Ocean. —"When a man is told that the whole of 
religion and morality is summed up in the two commandments, to love 
God and to love our neighbor, he is ready to cry, like Charoba in Gebir 
at the first sight of the sea, ' Is this the mighty ocean ? Is this all ? ' Yes ! 
all ; but how small a part of it do your eyes survey ! Only trust your- 
self to it ; launch out upon it ; sail abroad over it ; you will find it has 
no end ; it will carry you round the world." — Hare's Guesses at Truth. 



Love Cannot Die.— 

" They sin who tell us Love can die, 
With life all other passions fly, 
All others are but vanity. 



378 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : 36-38 



36. If Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered 
him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now ; but thou shalt follow me after- 
wards. 

37. Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot 1 follow thee now? 1 will lay down 
my life for thy sake. 

38. Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily; 
I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice. 



In heaven ambition cannot dwell, 
Nor avarice in the vaults of hell ; 
Earthly, these passions of the earth, 
They perish where they had their birth, 
But Love is indestructible. 

Its holy flame forever burneth, 

From heaven it came, to heaven returneth. 

Too oft on earth a troubled guest, 

At times deceived, at times oppressed, 

It here is tried, and purified. 

Then hath in heaven its perfect rest ; 

It soweth here with toil and care, 

But the harvest time of Love is there." —Southey. 



It is the heart, and not the brain, 
That to the highest doth attain ; 
And he that follows Love's behest 
Far excelleth all the rest." 



As I Have Loved You. — Miss Havergal, in Kept for the Master's 
Use, quotes the following from Under the Surface. Eleanor says to 
Beatrice : 

" ' I tremble when I think 
How much I love him ; but I turn away 
From thinking of it, just to love him more — 
Indeed, I fear, too much.' 

" ' Dear Eleanor, 
Do you love him as much as Christ loves us ? 
Let your lips answer me.' 



XIII: 36-38 ST. JOHN 379 

" ' Why ask me, dear? 



Our hearts are finite, Christ is infinite. ' 
" ' Then, till you reach the standard of that love, 
Let neither fears nor well-meant warning voice 
Distress you with ' ' too much." For He hath said 
How much — and who shall dare to change His 

measure? — 
" That ye should love as 1 have loved you.'" 
O sweet command, that goes so far beyond **" 

The mightiest impulse of the tenderest heart ! 
A bare permission had been much ; but He 
Who knows our yearnings and our tearfulness, 
Chose graciously to bid us do the thing 
That makes our earthly happiness, 
A limit that we need not fear to pass, 
Because we cannot. Oh, the breadth and length, 
And depth and height of love that passeth knowledge ! 
Yet Jesus said, " As I have loved you." ' 
" ' O Beatrice, I long to feel the sunshine 
That this should bring ; but there are other words 
Which fall in chill eclipse. 'Tis written, " Keep 
Yourselves from idols." How shall I obey ? ' 
" ' Oh, not by loving less, but loving more. 
It is not that we love our precious ones 
Too much, but God too little. As the lamp 
A miner bears upon his shadowed brow 
Is only dazzling in the grimy dark, 
And has no glare against the summer sky, 
So, set the tiny torch of our best love 
In the great sunshine of the love of God. 
And, though full fed and fanned, it casts no shade, 
And dazzles not, o'erflowed with mightier light.'" 



A. I>. 30. 

April 6, 
Tkzirsday Eve. 

THE EVENING 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 



JERUSALEM. 
Warning 
to Judas. 



38. Peter. 



11 We may not know how earnestly 
They struggled, or how well, 
Until the hour of weakness came, 
And sadly thus they fell. 

; ' Heir of the self -same heritage, 
Child of the self-same God, 
He hath but stumbled in the path 
We have in weakness trod." 



380 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : 36-38 

Peter and Judas Contrasted. — Judas was like a dead tree ; Peter 
like a living tree with one dead limb. Judas' character was a stream 
running in the wrong direction. Peter's was a stream running in the 
right direction, with eddies and swirls in the wrong. 

Judas kept on in sin. Peter repented, — he went out and wept bit- 
terly. 



XIV: I, 2 



ST. JOHN 



381 



CHAPTER XIV. 



THE COMFORTER. 



1. Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God. believe 
also in me. 

2. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not 
so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 



A. ». 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April b. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Chapters 14 to 16 comprise the dying message of Discourse 
Jesus to his chosen disciples, the last long message Lord's 

they would receive from his lips. The shadow of the Supper. 

cross was fallen upon them. The great tragedy was v 

soon to be enacted. Darkness, tumults, dangers, were gathering like 
storm-clouds around them. They had nothing but Him, and He was 
going away, — no teacher, no institutions, no power, no 
influence, no strength even to stand alone, no army, no 
rank, nothing by which to bring in the promised kingdom. 
They could see only danger and disaster, and " darkness 
that may be felt." 



Jesus' 
Dying 
Words. 



Jesus' words were a rainbow on the storm, the shining of heaven's 
rays through the clouds, new life poured into their souls, the gate of 
heaven left ajar. They picture home after long travels, a haven after 
a stormy voyage, and show that all along the way the air is full of 
angels of help, as the space around Raphael's Sistine Madonna is filled 
with angel faces. The way is shining with the presence of the Holy 
Spirit. 



Library. — Other illustrations may be found in Dr. Gregg's The 
Heaven Life (Revell) ; in Dr. Haggard's The Tearless Land, a collection 
of poems on Heaven ; Bickersteth's Yesterday, To-day, and Forever ; 
Plato's Phcedo gives the last discourse of Socrates. 



1. Tour Heart, KapSia —The physical heart is the centre of life to 
the body, and sends the life-blood to every part. The heart is " the 
soul or mind, as it is the fountain and seat of the thoughts, passions, 
desires, appetites, affections, purposes, endeavors;" "the inner man;" 
"the understanding;" "the will and character."— TJiayer's Greek 
— English Lex, 



382 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIV : I, 2 

" Generally the center of our complex being, physical, moral, spiritual 
and intellectual. The immediate organ by which man lives his personal 
life, and where the entire personal life concentrates itself." — Vincent. 
Jesus does not refer here to small and superficial troubles, but those 
which stirred the very depths of their being. 



Troubled, Tapacro-eo-Gw, troubled like the waves of the sea in a storm ; 
perplexed, distressed. 

Believe Also in Me. — All the mighty works which Jesus had done 
were so many reasons for believing in Him now. The victories which 
God had gained through Jesus over hard hearts, over demons and sick- 
ness, and storms at sea, would be the assurance of victory in the pres- 
ent troublous times. Here is the medicine for troubled hearts. Here 
is the true faith cure. Here is heard Christ's " Peace, be still." Once 
when half sick, full of doubts, unable to realize God or Heaven, or feel 
the full assurance of hope, I was sailing across the Bay of 
Fundy in a thick fog in the night, a symbol of my own An Experi- 
spiritual condition. During the night I was awakened by ence at Sea. 
the sharp whistles, the stopping and starting of the engine, 
and went on deck. For half an hour I watched the captain and owner, 
with whom I was acquainted. I saw the precaution he took, how he 
sounded with the plummet, and listened for the fog-bell, how carefully 
he sailed his steamer. I returned to my room, and slept, saying that I 
could trust such a captain as that, and with such a record as he had. 
Then I said to myself, how much more can I trust my Heavenly Father 
and my Saviour, even in the darkest and dreariest night. 



2. In My Father's House Are Many Mansions. — Dwelling places. 
Not separate houses, but special abodes in God's great house. "The 
image is derived from those vast Oriental palaces in which there is an 
abode not only for the sovereign and the heir to the throne, but also for 
all the sons of the king, however numerous they may be. " — Oodet. 
" The palace at the Vatican, for instance, contains more than forty-four 
hundred rooms. There were many rooms for priests and for various pur- 
poses in connection with the temple. The idea here is, plenty of room 
in the Father's house for all His children." — Broadus. 

Library. — Compare Homer's description of Priam's Palace, Iliad, 
vi. : 242-250. 

" A palace built with graceful porticoes, 
And fifty chambers near each other, walled 
With polished stone, the rooms of Priam's sons 
And of their wives." 



XIV: I, 2 ST. JOHN 383 

Many Mansions. — "The explanation given by Mul- 
ligan and Moulton is, that the Father's house includes 
earth as well as Heaven ; that it is, in short, the 
universe, over which the Father rules, having many 
apartments, some on this side, others beyond the 
grave. When, therefore, Jesus goes away, it is only 
to another chamber of the one house of the Father. 
The main thought is that wherever Jesus is, wherever 
we are, we are all in the Father's house, and therefore 
there can be no real separation between Jesus and His 
disciples. This is very beautiful, and in itself true ; but, as an explana- 
tion of this passage, is not warranted by anything in it, but is rather 
read into it." — 31. R. Vincent. 



A.D. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April 6. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 
at the 

Lord's 
Supper. 



' Build thee more stately mansions, 

Oh, my soul, 
As the swift seasons roll ! 
Leave thy low- vaulted past ! 
Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 

Till thou at length art free, 
Leaving thine outworn shell by life's unresting sea." 

— O. W. Holmes, in the Chambered Nautilus. 



" I read in a porch of a palace bold, 

On a brazen tablet letters cast, — 
A house, though a million winters old, 

A house of earth comes down at last. 
Then quarry the rock from the crystal All, 
And build the dome which shall not fall." 



Our Father's Home. — The original term for " mansions " is derived 
from the Greek verb meaning to abide, as our word " mansion " is from 
the Latin maner, to abide, and hence implies the idea of abode, rest, 
stability, home. 

1. It is a real place, beautiful beyond compare (see Eev. 21 and 22), 
Even if these chapters refer to the renewed earth, heaven cannot 
be less glorious 

" If so much loveliness is sent 
To grace our earthly home, 
How beautiful, how beautiful 
Must be the world to come ! " 

3. Each will have his own home, and one that entirely suits him. 



384 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIV : I, 2 

3. Its many mansions are prepared for those who dwell in them. 
The place will be perfectly adapted to the needs and qualities of those 
who inhabit them. Different natures want different mansions. 
Trench and Westcott explain the word ' ' mansions " as " stations " on a 
journey, according to a later meaning of the word, combining the 
notions of progress and repose. Even if this is untenable, as Professor 
Vincent says, yet it is doubtless a fact that our souls will grow in the 
future life, and may require different mansions in their different degrees 
of progress, as there must be for angels, archangels, principalities, and 
powers. The stars may be among the many mansions where the angels 
and redeemed may go from time to time, as w r e have our summer and 
our winter homes. 

4. In our Father's house we shall find all that makes up a perfect home 
life, a father's love and care, the companionship of brothers and sisters, 
training at all times, the Room for Rest, the Library for knowledge, the 
Music room, the Art gallery, the Dining room for nourishing souls, 
the Sitting room for meeting with others in social intercourse. 

5. Here will be found everything that can be prepared for an expected 
guest, a welcome warm and glad. " When we come to the gates of 
God's dwelling," says Dr. Dods, "it will not be as the vagabond and 
beggar, unknown to the household, but as the child whose coming is 
expected and prepared for, and who has indeed been sent for." 

6. Here will be the center of activities, the vision of ideals, perfect 
freedom, a perfect atmosphere of love, more than heart can conceive 
of good. (Seel Cor. 2:9.) 

" O then the bliss of blisses, to be freed 

From all the cares with which this world is driven, 
With liberty and endless years to read 
The libraries of heaven ! " 

7. There will be the most perfect companionship. 



Some men were once asked to name that one of all their friends whom 
they would choose if they were compelled to live six months on a deso- 
late island with only one companion. This is a test of friendship, but 
better, and more agreeable friends await us there. 



I Go to Prepare a Place for You. — 

" How joyed my heart in the rich melodies 
That overhead and round me did arise ! 
The moving leaves — the water's gentle flow — 
Delicious music hung on every bough. 
Then said I in my heart, If that the Lord 



XIV : 3-5 



ST. JOHN 



385 



3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come 
again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye 
may be also. 

4. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. 

5. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou 
goest; and how can we know the way? 

Such lovely" music on the earth accord ; 

If to weak, sinful man such sounds are given, 

Oh ! what must be the melody of heaven ! " 



A. D. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April b. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 

at the 

Lord's 

Supper. 



1 ' Ye stars are but the shining dust 
Of my divine abode, 
The pavement of the heavenly court 
Where I shall reign with God." 



The Vision of the Beyond.— " Did you ever climb the winding stair- 
case of some great tower? As you ascended you came to a window, 
through which you had a glimpse of a fair and lovely world outside the 
dark tower. How little, how poor, and cheerless seemed the nar- 
row limits of your staircase, as you looked upon the illimitable scene 
stretched before your view. Life in this world is like the ascent of such 
a column, and thoughts of immortality, when they come to us, are 
little windows through which we have glimpses of the infinite sweep 
and stretch of life beyond this hampered, broken, fragmentary existence 
of earth." — 'Week Bay Religion,'' by J. R. Miller, D. D." 



" O but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, 
Or what is heaven for." — Browning. 



Some humble door among Thy many mansions, 
Some sheltering shade where sin and striving cease, 

And flows forever through heaven's green expansions 
The river of Thy peace. 

There, from the music round about me stealing, 
I fain would learn the new and holy song, 

And find, at last, beneath Thy trees of healing, 
The life for which I long."— J. G. Whittier. 
35 



386 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIV : 3-5 

Preparing Us for the Place. — Jesus went away not only to pre- 
pare a place for us, so that it will be ready for us as one by one we go 
home, but to prepare us for the place, to fit us for heavenly enjoyments 
and heavenly service till we become 

" Rich in experience that angels might covet, 
Rich in a faith that has grown with the years." 

It is quite as essential that we should be prepared for heaven as that 
heaven should be prepared for us. The same double process is going 
on with reference to that part of our Father's home in which we may 
dwell in this life. He is opening doors of opportunity, and preparing 
a sphere, a place for us on earth, and also preparing us for the sphere 
he would have us fill, and the work he would have us do. 

" The tasks, the joys of earth, the same in heaven shall be, 
Only the little brook has widened to a sea." 

This World Like a Quarry. — This world is a quarry where the 
living stones of God's beautiful temple in the heavens are being shaped 
and polished for their places. Few places are more rough, more lacking 
in every element of beauty, than a stone quarry. I began my ministry 
among the quarries of Cape Ann, which have since been multiplying 
over its granite surface. Were I to take the owners of some of the 
newer quarries and walk with them over the familiar places, I could 
say to them : "I remember when I used to walk here among stately 
trees, or sit under the shadow of a great rock and feast on the sur- 
rounding beauties; but now you have blasted the rocks, you have cut 
down the trees, you have littered the fields with broken fragments. 
What does it all mean ? " Then they could take me to some noble 
buildings in various cities and say: "Do you see those stately 
buildings, beautiful cornices, graceful arches, lofty columns? Well, 
there is the meaning of the quarry." So it is that heaven explains the 
meaning of many of the mysteries of our earthly experience. The 
cares, burdens, sorrows, joys, work, trials, are all instruments for 
fitting us for our heavenly home. 

5. We Know Not Whither Thou Goest. — Trapp quaintly remarks 
that believers in the frame of Thomas are like people who hunt for 
their keys and purses, when they have them in their pockets. 



" When Philip Henry, the father of the celebrated commentator, 
sought the hand of the only daughter and heiress of Mr. Matthews in 



XIV: 6 



ST. JOHN 



387 



6. Jesus saith unto him. I am the way, the truth and the life: 
uo man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 



marriage, aii objection was made by her father, who 
admitted that he was a gentleman, a scholar, and an 
excellent preacher ; but he was a stranger, and ' they 
did not even know where he came from.' ' True,' 
said the daughter, who had well weighed the excellent 
qualities and graces of the stranger; ' but I know 
where he is going, and I should like to go with him.' " 



A. D. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April b. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 

at the 

Lord's 

Supper. 



6. 1 Am the Way. — The peculiarity of the religion of Jesus that 
distinguishes it from all other religions is expressed in the words, I am 
the way. There is some truth in all great religions. There are moral 
teachings in them, as pearls among the seashore pebbles. There is 
some light from heaven in them, as a candle in the night gives real 
light though it is not the sun. 

Sometimes those who have read the best things spoken by heathen 
writers, as those in the Light of Asia (which are transfused by the 
teachings of the Light of the World), or those in the Parliament of 
Religions, are tempted to feel that those lofty thoughts and occasional 
high ideas may be enough. Why teach them about Jesus ? 

But they all fail in making men good, in redeeming the world from 
sin. They are pictures of a better life; Jesus is the way to the better 
life. They are advice to be good ; Jesus is the way to be good. Thpy 
are systems of worship and to some extent of morality; Christianity 
is a system of redemption. They are the cry of the soul after God ; 
Jesus is the answer to the cry. They tell us, " Be good and you shall 
be happy ; " Jesus is the power that makes men good. They hold up 
ideals ; Jesus makes the ideal to be the real. They seem to say with 
Tennyson : 

" I falter where T firmly trod, 

And falling with my weight of cares 
Upon the great world's altar stairs 
That slope through darkness up to God, 



I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope, 
And gather dust and chaff, and call 
On what I feel is Lord of all, 

And faintly trust the larger hope." 



388 SUGCESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIV : 6 

For nian, without Jesus the light of the world, is but 

" An infant crying in the night, 
An infant crying for the light, 
And with no language but a cry." 

But Jesus gives what others hope for, answers every question of life, 
and is the way out of darkness, and ignorance, and sin, and wretched- 
ness, and death, and hell, and the way into light, and truth, and 
blessedness, and peace, aud holiness, and heaven. He is the reality of 
what Jacob dreamed, a way, a ladder reaching from earth to heaven. 

We see a sick man in his chair, weak, all drawn up with rheumatism ; 
what he needs is not a description of the health he ought to possess, nor 
an athlete showing him the powers of human body. He first needs a 
physician who can cure him. Then the picture and the athlete can do 
him good. 



Jesus the Way, Because He Guides Us Safely. — Mammoth 
Cave is a labyrinth of winding paths, two hundred miles in length, in 
different stories, one below another. On every side are clangers and 
pitfalls — here the Bottomless Pit, there the Maelstrom, here Scylla, 
and there Charybdis, there "the black hole," and the Dead 
Sea. The darkness is absolute; it can almost be felt. No Mammoth 
one can find his way without a guide. If left behind it is Cave, 
not safe to move. A friend once got left behind and was 
alone in the dark, and the twenty minutes seemed an eternity. Some 
of our party lingered behind, and then we heard them calling to us 
that they had lost their way. We could see their lights and hear their 
voices, but they did not know the way to us. After we had gone some 
little distance into its depths, we came to a hall called the Methodist 
Church. Here one of the guides mounted a high rock and called our 
attention to a short sermon he wished to preach. The sermon was, 
•' Keep close to your guide." And we soon found that the only safety 
was in giving careful heed to the guide's sermon. And we found, too, 
that the best place was near the guide, where we could hear most 
plainly his descriptions and stories connected with the places. Jesus 
is our guide. He never leads us into bad places or wrong-doings. 
Sometimes He guides in strange ways, but always the best ways in the 
end. 



JESUS Knows the Way. —There is a little poem in which we are 
compared to an engineer on a steamship down deep in the vessel where 



XIV : 6 ST. JOHN 389 



he cannot see the way, but he obeys the orders of the ^ 

pilot, who is above and who does see. feo we. ignorant a. J). 30 

of the future and its dangers, may yet follow Him 
who knows all and guides safelv. 



THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 
at tlie 

I know not the wav I am going, Lord's 



And so in the wearisome journey 
Over life's troubled sea, 



Thursday Eve. 
April 0. 



Bat Jesus shall pilot me." 
Foster's Cyclopedia of Poet. 17/.. 3619. 



Supper. 



Jesus the Way by His Word. — Some years ago Rev. E. P. Ham- 
mond was rambling in the famous labyrinth of Henry VIII. at Hampton 
Court near London, where the common children's puzzle is wrought 
out on a large scale by paths between high and thick evergreen hedges, 
so arranged that one can see only the path near his feet. He wandered 
about it for a time, but when the time for closing drew near, with all 
his efforts he could not find his way out, and he feared that he 
might have to remain all night. At last he happened to look up, and 
saw a man in the tower in the centre of the labyrinth watching him all 
the time, and waiting to catch his attention. The eye above could see 
all the ways so hidden from the man within, and soon guided him out 
of his difficulties. Visiting this labyrinth with good Deacon Olney, 
one of Spurgeon's choice deacons, just gone to his home above, we pur- 
chased a chart for our guide, remembering my friend's experience. 
When the time came for us to find our way out, we took the chart, and 
by careful study, and exactness in following the designated way. we 
threaded the mazes of the labyrinth with success. Life is such a 
labyrinth. Xo person knows enough to guide his course unaided. He 
cannot see where the paths lead. The picture is a sealed book to all. 
But Jesus sees our lives as Moses saw the promised land from Pisgah's 
top ; and He points out to us the true path ; He shows us the turning- 
points, and puts in our hand a chart by which we shall safely find our 
wav to the best life here and to heaven bevond. 



Jesus the Guide en* the Way. — "A traveler who has scaled the 
Alps, and knows all the difficulties and dangers which beset the climber, 
has given very lucid and practical suggestions, out of his own experi- 
ence, for the benefit of those who aspire to reach the Alpine summits. 
His advice may be condensed into these pithy points : 1. Get a guide ; 
2. Get the best guide ; 3. Get a guide who has been well tried ; 4. When 
you have found him engage him quickly ; 5. Trust yourself unre- 
servedly to his guidance ; 6. Do exactly what he tells you, do as he 



390 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIV : 6 

does, step where he steps, stop when he stops, go on when he goes on." 
— Sunday School Times. This is an exact picture of what we should 
do with respect to Jesus, our guide. We walk amid a thousand unknown 
perils, of cold, of concealed crevasse, of sudden avalanche, of giddy 
abyss, of slippery path, and only Jesus is the way to go safely through 
them all. 



Christ the Way. — If we ask ourselves what we need for salvation, 
and therefore what all men need, we shall see that we need (1) to know 
that there is a God and a heaven ; (2) we need to become acquainted 
with our Father ; (3) we need forgiveness of sins ; (4) we need a new 
heart, a new life, to fit us to live with our Father in His holy home ; (o) 
we need every motive, hope, fear, duty, love, to enable us to live a true 
life ; (6) we need the Holy Spirit to give life and light to guide us and 
teach us day by day, and be to our lives what the spring sun and rain 
are to the earth : (7) we need a perfect example and ideal life before 
us. Now all these are found in their fulness only in Jesus Christ. In 
Him we find ever}- golden chain let down from heaven to lift us up to 
heaven. Jesus is the way across the chasm between sin and holiness, 
the evil heart and God. 



A Chinaman's Experience. — The superiority of Christianity over 
other religions was thus illustrated by a converted Chinaman. "A 
man had fallen into a deep pit and was unable to move. Confucius 
passed by and said, ' Poor fellow, I am sorry for you. Why were you 
such a fool as to get in there? If you ever get out don't get in again.' 
Next came a Buddhist priest. He looked down and said, ' Poor fellow, 
if you scramble up two-thirds of the way I might reach down and help 
you out.' Last of all the Saviour came, reached entirely down to the 
bottom, lifted him up, set him on his feet, and said, ' Go and sin no 
more.' " — W. Dickson. 



The Proof That Christ is the Way lies in what He has actually 
done for the world. We are told that Jesus and His Christianity are 
behind the age. Jesus is behind the age as the wind is behind the 
ship, making it go ; as the engine is behind the factory, turning its 
machinery, and enabling it to do its work ; as the sun is behind the 
morning, bringing the dawn. 



Testimony of J. Russell Lowell. — ' ' The worst kind of religion is 
no religion at all, and these men, living in ease and luxury, indulging 
thmselves in the amusement of going without a religion, may be thank- 
ful that they live in lands where the gospel they neglect has tamed 



XIV: 7, 8 ST. JOHN 391 



7. If ye had known rue, ye should haye known my Father 
also; and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. ' ° 

8. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it *3Jr?/i. 

Sufficeth US. THE NIGHT 

. BEFORE THE 

CRUCIFIXION'. 

the beastliness and ferocity of the men who, but for Discourse 
Christianity, might long ago have eaten their carcasses Lord's 

like the South Sea Islanders, or cut off their heads and Supper. 

tanned their hides like the monsters of the French »i*- *£• 

Revolution. When the microscopic search of skepti- 
cism, which has hunted the heavens and sounded the seas to disprove 
the existence of a Creator, has turned its attention to human society, 
and has found a place on this planet ten miles square where a decent 
man may live in decency, comfort, and security, supporting and 
educating his children unspoiled and unpolluted — a place where age is 
reverenced, infancy respected, manhood respected, womanhood honored, 
and human life held in due regard — when skeptics can find such a 
place ten miles square on this globe, where the gospel has not gone, and 
cleared the way and laid the foundations and made decency and security 
possible, it will then be in order for the skeptical literati to move 
thither and ventilate their views. So long as these men are dependent 
upon the religion which they discard for every privilege they enjoy, 
they may well hesitate a little before they seek to rob the Christian of 
his hope and humanity of faith in that Saviour who alone has given 
to man that hope of life eternal which makes life tolerable and society 
possible, and robs death of its terrors and the grave of its gloom. " — J. 
Russell Lowell. 

The Two Maps. — In the volumes containing the United States 
census are a number of maps or charts showing, by means of varying 
shades of colors, the degrees in which various things pertaining to our 
country's welfare prevail in different parts of the land ; as, for instance, 
wealth, ignorance, various diseases, different classes of the population 
Now, if there were to be made two maps of the world, one showing the 
happiness, comforts, morality, good deeds, benevolent gifts means of 
innocent enjoyment, the light shades showing the countries in which a 
large degree of happiness is enjoyed, and the shades growing darker as 
the blessings grow less; the other map showing the prevalence of Chris- 
tianity, the lands where the purest Christianity is most prevalent being 
represented in white, and the shades darkening as the lands have a 
less pure Christianity, or less prevalent, down to the blackness of 
utter heathenism — it would be found that these two maps almost 
exactly coincide. The more Christianity, the more happiness ; and 



392 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIV -.9-12 



9. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and jet hast thou 
not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father ; and how sayest 
thou then Shew us the Father? 

10. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words 
that I speak unto you I speak not of myself : but the Father that dwelleth in me, 
he doeth the works. 

11. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me 
for the very works' sake. 

12. Yerily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do 
shall he do also ; and greater works than these shall he do ; because I go unto my 
Father. 



blessings lessen and sorrows multiply in proportion as there is less of the 
Christian religion. "The new age stands as yet half-built against the 
sky," but it is Christ that has built the new age thus far, and that 
building is rising faster and faster each year. 



And the Life. — "There comes to my mind in closing a beautiful 
legend of classical mythology. It is the story of the sculptor who had 
made many great works of beauty in marble, charming the eyes of 
others, yet bringing no heart-ease to himself. One day, after he had 
spent months of labor in fashioning out of marble a figure of exquisite 
beauty in the form of a woman, he bore it up to the heights of Olympus 
to the feet of Jove, and besought that something might be given to him 
as master of his art that would bring him greater joy than the applause 
of the multitude or the sight of his own productions. Jove breathed 
upon the marble form, gave it life, and it went home as the bride of the 
artist to minister to him in after life and be his joy and strength. " — 
Prof. Hammill. 

Reference. — See under 1:4; iii. : 16; v: 14. 

" I am the way, the truth, and the life. Without the way there is 
no going ; without the truth there is no knowing ; without the life 
there is no living. I am the way which thou shouldst pursue ; the 
truth which thou shouldst believe ; the life which thou shouldst hope 
for " (Thomas a Kempis, " Imitation of Christ," iii. : 56). 



9. He That Hath Seen Me Hath Seen the Father. — We can know 
God only through material manifestations, as we know men through 
our bodily powers and their bodily manifestations. So we know the 
sun only through the material objects through which or by which it is 
manifested. One minute of full direct vision of the sun would blind 



XIV: 9-12 ST. JOHN 393 

us. We see the light itself as reflected from objects; 
the colors, the chemical and life rays, the power that 
takes pictures, the heat rays, all only through some 
physical objects. 

From one cup of water we can understand the 
nature of all the waters that flow in our rivers. From 
a few pieces of stone we know the nature of the rocks 
which build up our mountain chains. From a few 
rays of light we know the nature of all the light that 
radiates from the sun. 



A. B. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April 6. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 

at tlie 

Iiord's 

Supper. 



Library. — See Longfellow's "Legend Beautiful" in Tales of a Way- 
side Inn. 



12. Greater Works Than These Shall He Do. — The miracles of 
Christ are the types of what Christianity is doing on a far larger scale 
than could be done in Palestine. The kindly feeling, the desire to 
help, the increased skill which springs up under Christianity as flowers 
and fruits grow in the sunshine, have made Christ's works through His 
peoples greater than those He wrought in person. They are not 
miracles, but are better than the power of miracles, as the prolonged 
sunshine is better than a flash of lightning. Blind asylums have opened 
many eyes, and caused people to read and work even without sight. 
Hospitals have cured and cared for multitudes of sick and insane. We 
cannot raise the dead to life, but the average length of life has been 
greatly increased. The day- laborer has more of the best things in the 
world, — books, libraries, churches, railroads, telegraphs, newspapers, 
— than kings have in heathen lands. Dr. Dorchester states that 500 
charitable societies in London expend $5,000,000 annually ; and in New 
York City, $4,000,000 annually are expended. In the United States, 43 
institutions care for 5,743 deaf and dumb annually ; 30 for the blind, 
with 2,178 pupils ; and 11 for 1,781 idiots. The philanthropies sum up the 
result of Christian care for the poor — the orphans, little wanderers, 
insane, sick, foundlings, cripples, drunken outcasts, children — in the 
United States as amounting to at least $120,000,000 a year. All these 
things are but a small part of what Christianity is doing for man. 

Reference. — See under verse 6. 

The historian Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 
commenting on the story of the Seven Sleepers, vividly pictures the 
surprise of the man who should fall asleep, and after the lapse of two 
hundred years, with the vision of the old world fresh in his mind, 
wake and look upon the strangeness of the new. 



394 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIV 19-! 2 

"Most wondrous, too, that the prophetic eye searching out the can- 
didate for universal fame should turn to a captive nation, to a degraded 
province, to a village into which had run all the slime of creation, to an 
obscure peasant's cottage, and therefrom select an unschooled youth, 
born into poverty, bound to coarsest labor, doomed to thirty years of 
obscurity, scorned by rulers, despised by priests, mobbed by common 
people, by all counted traitorous to his country and religion, in death 
stigmatized by a method of execution reserved for slaves and convicts. 
Our wonder grows apace when we remember that he wrote no book, no 
poem, no drama, no philosophy ; invented no tool or instrument, 
fashioned no law or institution, discovered no medicine or remedy, 
outlined no philosophy of mind or body , contributed nothing to geology 
or astronomy, but stood at the end of his brief career doomed and 
deserted, solitary and silent, utterly helpless, fronting a shameless trial 
and a pitiless execution. In that hour none so poor as to 
do him reverence ; and yet could some magician have Carpenter's 
touched men's eyes they would have seen that no power in Son the 
Heaven and no force on earth for majesty apd productive- Conqueror, 
ness could equal or match this crowned sufferer, whose 
name was above every man's name. The ages have come and gone ; let 
us hasten to confess that the carpenter's son hath lifted the gates of the 
empires off their hinges, and turned the stream of the centuries out of 
its channels. By his spirit he hath leavened all literature, made laws 
just, governments humane, manners gentle, cold marble warm, refined 
art by new and divine themes, shaped those cathedrals called frozen 
prayers, led scientists to dedicate books and discoveries to him, so glorified 
an instrument of torture as that the peerless beauty seeks to enhance 
her loveliness by hanging his cross about her neck, while new inven- 
tions and institutions seem but letters in his storied speech." — N. D. 
Hillis, D. D. 



Progress of Christianity. — At the end of 1000 years there were 
50,000,000 people under Christian governments. 

In A. D. 1500 there were 100,000,000 ; doubled in 500 years. 

In A. D. 1800 there were 200,000,000 ; doubled in 300 years. 

In A. D. 1880 there were 400,000,000 ; doubled in 80 years, or more 
gain in the last 80 years than in the previous 1800 years. 



Library. — Dr. Dorchester's "Religious Progress" and Schauffler's 
capital little book, " The Growth of Christianity During Nineteen Cen- 
turies." 

Dr. Dennis's Missions and Social Progress is of the first order. 



XIV: 13-15 ST - J° HN 395 



13. Aud whatsoever ye shall ask iu my name, that will I do, 
that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 

14. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. 

15. U If ye love me, keep my commandments. 



A. B 30. 

Thursday Eve* 
April 6. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 

at the 

Liord's 

Supper. 



Copying Raphael. — " Imagine one without genius, 
and devoid of the artist's training, sitting down be- 
fore Raphael's famous picture of the ' Transfigura- 
tion ' and attempting to reproduce it ! How crude and 
mechanical and lifeless his work would be ! But if such 
a thing were possible that the spirit of Raphael should enter into the man 
and obtain the mastery of his mind and eye and hand, it would be entirely 
possible that he should produce this masterpiece ; for it would simply 
be Raphael reproducing Raphael. For this purpose have we been filled 
with the spirit of God, that we might do the very things which He 
would do if He were here. The works that I do shall ye do also ; and 
greater works than these shall ye do ; because I go unto my Father." — 
A. J. Gordon, D. D. 



14. If Ye Shall Ask Anything. — " God fades gradually out of the 
daily life of those who never pray ; a God who is not a providence is a 
superfluity ; when from the heavens does not smile a listening Father, 
it soon becomes an empty space." — Mrs. Annie Besant, giving a leaf 
from her experience. 

" Power comes by prayer, — the secret of power is fire, kindled from 
above. One man and God with him stands undismayed among a 
thousand foes and can carry off the gates of Gaza and lift the pillars of 
Dagon's temple. 

It is said of Themistocles, at the battle of the Salamis that he delayed 
that naval engagement until the land-breeze blew which swept his ves- 
sels toward the foe, and left every oarsman free to act as bowman and 
spearman." — Rev. Arthur T. Pierson, D. D. Thus we, receiving divine 
power and influence in answer to prayer, are free to give soul and body 
to doing the work of God. 

Reference. — See Suggestive Illustrations onMattheiv under vii: 7-11. 



Library. — Trench's Poems, "The Suppliant." Longfellow's Poems, 
Sandalphon." TJie Poem, " Strive Yet I Do Not Promise." 



15. Keep, rrip^o-aTe, keep by means of guarding, or watching, the safe 
custody as the result of guarding against assault. 



396 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XI V : 16,17 

16. And I will pray the Father, aad he shall give you another Comforter, that he 
may abide with you for ever; 

17. Even, the Spirit of truth ; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth 
him not, neither knoweth him ; but ye know him ; for he dwelleth with you, and 
shall be in you. 

Keep My Commandments. — The commandments are kept by obeying 
them. Love is the source of obedience, as a fountain is the source of 
the river. If there is love in the heart it will manifest itself in this way 
as naturally as a fruit tree will show its nature by its fruit, or a rose- 
bush by its flowers. No kind or degree of emotion can be a substitute 
for obedience. 



If Ye Love Me. — " You learn to know your guide by obeying him, 
and you learn to love him by committing yourself to him and trusting 
him. Spell that word Guide with a golden letter, and our lesson is done. 
Something about our divine Guide, Jesus Christ, you can learn from 
the Scriptures ; something, too, you can gather from the testimony of 
other men. But, my friend, if you want to know Him you have got to 
obey Him, and if you want to love Him you must first trust Him." — 
C. H. Parkhurst, D. D. in " The Swiss Guide." 



" When He began to teach, He did not go to the conscience, and say, 
' Convict ; ' not to the reverential faculty, and say, ' Adore ; ' nor to the 
reason, and say ' Argue, speculate.' No : He went straight and at once 
to the great central force in nature — to that engine-like power in man, 
which has power not merely to propel itself, but to start all the long 
train of faculties that are dependent upon it into motion, and to say, 
' Love.'" — W. H. H. Murray. 



''The articles of our faith are the depths in which an elephant could 
swim, and the principles of our practice are shallows where a lamb 
could wade." — Robert South. 



" Men will die for a new degree of latitude who will not give a drop 
of perspiration for a new degree of sanctity." 



Reference. — See under verses 21-24. 



16. Comforter. — irapa.K\T]Tov, from irapd, to the side of, and KaXcw, to 
call or summon, for comfort or help, as an advocate, counselor, 
comforter. 



XIV :l6, 17 ST. JOHN 397 



' ' The word is used in classical Greek, and a word -i 
of similar etymolgy, from which our word ' advocate ' 
(ad vocatus, called to another), is derived, is used in 
classical Latin to denote a person who patronizes 
another in a judicial cause, and who appears in sup- 
port of him. It was the custom, before the ancient 
tribunals, for the parties to appear in court, attended 
by one or more of their most powerful and influential 
friends, who were called ' paracletes" — the Greek — or 



A. D. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
Aj>ril 6. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 

at the 

Lord's 

Supper. 



'advocates' — the Latin term. They were not advo- 
cates in our sense of the term — feed counsel ; they were persons who, 
prompted by affection, were disposed to stand by their friend : and per- 
sons in whose knowledge, wisdom, and truth the individual having the 
cause had confidence. These paracletes, or advocates, gave their friends 
— ' prospelates,' or ' clients,' as they were called — the advantages of 
their character and station in society, and the aid of their counsel. 
They stood by them in the court, giving them advice, and speaking in 
their behalf when it was necessary. Jesus had been the paraclete of his 
disciples while he was with them." — J. Brown, D. D. He is called 
advocate (the same word here translated comforter) in 1 John 2: 1. He, 
the Son of God, who created the world, all wise, all powerful, stood 
with them, advising and defending them. This work now the Holy 
Spirit was to do for them as their advocate with God and man. Hence 
many would translate here advocate instead of comforter. 

But the actual work done by the Holy Spirit is much wider than our 
word " advocate" denotes, whatever it may mean in classic Greek. So 
that it is as much too narrow in one direction as " comforter " is in 
another. 



Comforting. — "The word rendered 'comforted' is used through- 
out the New Testament to signify ' strengthened.' A shivering man 
may be wrapped in blankets, brought to the fire, and so warmed for a 
time. That is our conception of ' comforting.' 

"His vital forces may be stimulated and increased till they drive 
away the chill and conquer the cold. That is the New Testament idea 
of ' comforting.' 

"Few words in the Bible have been more misunderstood than this. 
By it we mean ' soothing,' One to whom the language of the New 
Testament was a mother tongue would mean by it the opposite of 
' soothing.' To us the word suggests lullabies ; to him it would suggest 
war cries." — William Burnett Wriyht, D. D. 

Thus Peter wrote, " I exhort (lit. comfort) you feed the flock of God*' 
(1 Pet. 5: 1, 2). So on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit comforted 



3g8 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIV : 1 6, \J 

the disciples, by making them strong, courageous, and wise. Helper, 
in the R. V. margin, is a good translation of the word. 

Library. — See Aldis Wright's Bible Word Book, pp. 146, 147, for 
examples of this use. 



Comforted. — • ' The greatest tragic poet of Greece has left a descrip- 
tion of the battle of Salamis. The Persian ships, many and strong, in 
double crescent lines, blockaded Piraeus harbor. The Athenian vessels, 
few in number, were crowded within it. When the sun had set, the 
night before the battle, the commanders of both fleets went from ship 
to ship rousing the courage of the soldiers by brave words. Doing that 
iEschylus called 'comforting' the soldiers." — W. Burnet Wright. 



" Comfort, like ' virtue,' is a word that has lost much of its primitive 
force through the prevalence of a lower standard in the world's life, so 
that its original meaning is well-nigh lost sight of in practical use among 
men. Primarily ' virtue ' is ' manliness,' ' bravery,' ' knightly character ; ' 
but as a matter of usage ' virtue ' is merely such a measure of absti- 
nence from crime as keeps one out of jail, and within the pale of decent 
society. Comfort originally meant strength, support, countenance ; but 
now it is generally understood as meaning ' a state of tranquil enjoy- 
ment,' or 'that which produces the feeling of satisfaction.' In both 
cases the word has been deprived of its pristine vigor, until it fails of 
conveying its best meaning as an expression of thought and truth. In 
both cases, also, it were well for those who have character, and would 
evidence it, to reassert the true meaning of this symbol of courage and 
life, as a means of help to themselves and to their fellows. 

Nothing is worthy of the name of comfort that is not strengthening, 
invigorating, inspiring. Life is a struggle, and he who lacks courage 
lacks comfort in life's contests. He who would give comfort must in 
some way give strength and courage : and he who would have comfort 
must avail himself of aids to courage and strength." — Sunday School 
Times. 



Oxygen. — The least spark on a wick dipped into a jar of oxygen will 
burst into a flame. The seeds that lie dormant in winter burst into life 
under the rays of the sun in spring. So is the soul when baptized with 
the Holy Spirit. His presence kindles the flames of holiness. To draw 
our breath in the fear of the Lord is like leaving the reeking atmosphere 
of city dens or malarial swamps and breathiug the invigorating air of 
ocean or mountain tops. 

The Holy Spirit is like the white light of the sun, which the prism of 
our daily lives divides up into many colors and hues ; and various 



XIV : i6, 17 ST. john 399 

natures and circumstances reflect them ; but they all , b *5* 

have one source, and all combined make the full and a. D. 30. 

complete influence of the Holv Spirit. Thursday Eve. 

r J r April 6. 

THE NIGHT 

The Dispensation of the Spirit. — ' ' The Holy Spirit Jrucitooon. 
had been in the world before this, as the Old Testa- j Discourse 
ment Scriptures abundantly testify, but now came Lord's 

the dispensation of the Spirit, filling all, and not a Supper. 

few, abiding, not occasional, in great abundance and »s« <%> 

power. Formerly the gift was like the dew, now it is 

like the rain ; formerly like the early dawning light, now like the full 

splendor and power of the day. 

An organ filled with the ordinary degree of air which exists every- 
where is dumb. Throw in, not another air, but an unsteady current of 
the same air, and sweet, but imperfect and uncertain notes immediately 
respond to the player's touch ; increase the current to a full supply, and 
every pipe swells with music."' — From William Arthurs Tongue of 
Fire. 



Abide With You Forever. — " If the power of the Holy Spirit's 
drawing were to be likened, for a mere figure of speech, to magnetic 
attraction, the disciple through whom the Holy Spirit works would be 
the already magnetized piece of steel, and the outside sinner would be 
the bit of iron in its natural state. The natural iron is not moved by 
itself or in its own power, neither is it, in the present course of things, 
reached directly by the primitive lodestone; but it is by means of the 
magnetized steel that this iron is now lifted and drawn in the direc- 
tion of the Polar Star of the universe. The power is the mysterious 
magnetic attraction, but the method of that attraction's working is 
through the magnetized steel that was once a bit of impotent iron. So 
it is with him that is born of the Spirit, in the plan of God's working." 
— H. C. Trumbull LL. D. 



Mendelssohn and the Organ. — " Mendelssohn, the great composer, 
once visited Freiburg cathedral, and asked permission to play on the 
organ; but the custodian refused. At last, after much entreaty, con- 
sent was given; but, when Mendelssohn began to play, the old man, 
who was also the organist, burst into tears and asked him for his name. 
He wept afresh then, and said: ' Only to think! I had almost forbidden 
Mendelssohn to touch my organ.' Recognize Christ, and give Him a 
chance at the keys of purpose and ambition and desire and thought and 
the entire manual. Let His hand touch and control every part of your 
life." — From C. E. Address at San Francisco. 



400 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIV : 18-23 

IS. I will not leave you comfortless : I will come to you. 

19. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because 
I live, ye shall live also. 

20. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in 
you. 

21. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me : 
and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will 
manifest myself to him. 

22. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest 
thyself unto us, and not unto the world? 

23. Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words ; 
and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with 
him. 

Library. — Wright's Master and Man, p. 77, on comfort. Bernard's 
Central Doctrine, p. 164, note "How Christ Came to Church," p. 85. 



17. Whom the World Cannot Receive. — ' The ocean itself can 
pour but a scanty stream through a slender channel. Though the 
golden bowl be full of oil, the lamp will burn dim if the golden pipe 
is narrow or choked.*' 

A man who lived in the swamp daily prayed to Jupiter for health. 
" Pray from the hill-top, and your prayer will be granted," answered 
Jupiter. 

A rich but not generous man was once praying at family prayers that 
God would supply the needs of the poor. At his close, his son said to 
him, " Father, if you will let me have your barns, I will answer your 
prayer." 



21. He that Hath My Commandments, Etc. — " In one of Schiller's 
poems is a beautiful story about the birds, that when they were first 
created they had no wings; and the story is, that God made the wings, 
put them down before the birds, and said, ' Now, come and take the 
burdens up and bear them.' The birds had beautiful plumage and 
voices; they could sing and shine, but they could not soar; but they 
took up their wings with their beaks and laid them upon their shoulders, 
and at first they seemed to be a heavy load, and rather difficult to bear, 
But as they cheerfully and patiently bore them, and folded them over 
their hearts, lo! the wings grew fast, and that which they once bore, 
now bore them. The burdens became pinions, and the weights became 
wings. We are the wingless birds, and our duties are the pinions; and 
when at first we assume them, they seem loads; but if we cheerfully 
bear them, going after Jesus, the burdens change to pinions, and we, 






XIV: 24-26 ST. JOHN 401 



24. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the 
word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent 
me. 

25. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present 
with you. 

26. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the 
Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and 
bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said 
unto you. 

who once thought we were nothing but servants bearing loads, find 
that we are sons and heirs of God, free to mount up with wings as 
eagles, running without being weary, walking without being faint." — 
Arthur T. Pierson, D. D. 



A. D. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April b. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 
at the 

Lord's 
Supper. 



A Heavenly Foot Society. — " The Chinese women are beginning to 
rebel seriously against the fashion of compressing their feet, which has 
so long limited their energies. It appears that a missionary has been 
preaching to them on the subject, and they have taken the matter so 
much to heart that they have started a 'Heavenly Foot Society.'" — 
London Paper. So every Christian should belong to the heavenly foot 
society to walk swiftly in God's ways, to do His will, to cairy His 
gospel blessings to all. 



Story of Stradivarius. — George Eliot, in one of her poems, puts 
some noble words into the mouth of Stradivarius, the old violin- maker 
of Cremona. Speaking of the masters who will play on his violin, he 
says: — 

" While God gives them skill, 
I give them instruments to play upon, 
God chosing me to help Him. 



Tis God gives skill, 
But not without men's hands. 
He could not make 
Antonio Stradivarius' violins 
Without Antonio." 



At first reading these words may seem irreverent, but they are not. 
It is true indeed that even God cannot do our work without us, without 
our skill, our faithfulness. — Dr. J'. R. Miller, Making the Most of Life. 
26 



402 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIV : 27 

27. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you : not as the world giveth, 
give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 

Keeping the Commandments. — They say that it does not make any 
difference whether a man keeps the Ten Commandments or not, he will 
go to heaven anyway. If that is the kind of a place heaven is, it is 
scarcely worth while for anybody to go there. It is simply this world 
over again 

Doing God's Will From Love. — "A soul occupied with great ideas 
best performs small duties. The divinest views of life penetrate most 
clearly into the meanest emergencies, and so far from petty principles 
being best proportioned to petty trials, a heavenly spirit taking up its 
abode with us can alone sustain well the daily toils, and tranquilly pass 
the humiliations of our condition ; and to keep the house of the soul in 
order, due and pure, a God must come down and dwell within, as ser- 
vant of all its work." — Martineau. 






" If only we strive to be pure and true, 

To each of us all there will come an hour 
When the tree of life shall burst into flower, 
And rain at our feet a glorious dower 
Of something grander than ever we knew." 

26. The Holy Ghost Shall Teach You. — To be good workers we 
must be full of God's Word, as an engine that would draw a train must 
be full of fuel, and fuel on fire ; and there is no one thing that will so 
help us to do this as the Sunday school. 

There is an old familiar comparison of a Christian worker full of 
knowledge to a cannon made of the strongest steel, loaded with the best 
powder, and the latest form of shot, but as useless as a heap of sand, 
unless touched with the fire of the Holy Ghost. But the comparison is 
equally true if we turn it around. All the lightnings of heaven cannot 
fire off an unloaded cannon. God does not use an unloaded soul for his 
work. We need most of all the Holy Spirit, for every man has some- 
thing in him to be used. But if the Holy Spirit wishes to use a man 
where intelligence is required, he leads the man to gain the knowledge 
necessary for his work. 

Library.— Dr. McKenzie's late volume of sermons, The Open Door, on 
p. 87, has a good illustration of this verse. Didon's Christian Icon- 
ography, for illustrations of the power of the Holy Spirit in imparting 
wisdom and truth. 



XIV: 27 ST. JOHN 403 



A. », 30. 

Th%irsday Eve. 
April 6. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 

at the 

Lord's 

Supper. 



27. My Peace I Give Unto You. — There are two <i 
roads to peace — one is through being conquered, the 
other through conquering. 4, A country may always 
enjoy peace, if it is prepared always to submit to 
indignities, to accommodate itself to the demands of 

stronger parties, and absolutely to dismiss 
False from its mind all ideas of honor or self- 
Peace, respect. This mode of obtaining peace 

has the advantage of easy and speedy at- 
tainment. But the peace we gain by submission is 
both short-lived and delusive. It is short lived, for a gratified desire is 
like a relieved beggar, who will quickly find his way back to you with 
his request rather enlarged than curtailed ; and it is delusive, because 
it is a peace which is the beginning of bondage of the worst kind." — 
Expositor's Bible. 

" Once, as a poet was thinking of Napoleon's defeat when he tried to 
win Moscow, he had a dreadful dream of peace. Under the spell of his 
dream, he found himself in a dim, still, snowy wilderness ; many horse- 
men, covered with cloaks, their cloaks covered with snow, were sitting 
motionless ; dead fires were seen, with grenadiers, white with snow- 
stretched motionless around ; wagons, crowded with snow- 
shrouded, motionless figures, seemed to stop the way. the A Poet's 
wheels fixed by a river-side, in ruts of water which the Dream of 
frost had struck into steel ; cannon were there, heaped over Peace, 
with snow ; snow lay on banners unlifted, on trumpets 
unblown. Was the seer of such a sight moved to cry " Peace, peace ! " 
Better face the intense white flame that burst from guns, better face the 
terrible iron rain, better face the worst of war, than face a scene of 
peace like that ! Yet much that passes for peace in the region of the 
soul, and in relation to God, is not much better." — C. Stanford, D. D. 



The other way to peace is through victory, the victory of good gov- 
ernment, of all things in harmony, of the perfect control of right and of 
God. Says Lyman Abbott, " Great souls come to great peace only after 
great conflict. Not till in his own life and soul the devil has been van- 
quished can any one of us vanquish him for others ; and the greater 
his battle for others is to be, the greater the battle in and for himself 
will be." 

" Their peace shall flow as a river." Beginning in a little mountain 
spring, it flows, a little rill, over many a stony obstacle, 
down precipices, through forests and green fields, gleaming Peace Like 
in the sunshine, somber and slow in the shade, but con- a Biyejc» 



404 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIV : 27 

tinually growing stronger and deeper, receiving new life from other 
streams, till at last it becomes a broad and deep river, flowing peacefully 
over the rocks that broke it into foam in its earlier career, and feeling 
the pulsations of the tide waves of its ocean home. 



Peace with One Another. — All Christians are like the different 
voices in a choir, and instruments in an orchestra, made to be in har- 
mony, although differing so much in tone and in quality 



Peace in One's Own Soul. — All the parts of the soul are in harmony ; 
like the different stops of an organ, our will, our purposes, our con- 
science, our tastes and desires, our love, are all one beautiful harmony. 



Library. — Longfellow's Poems, "The Arsenal at Springfield," and 
Christmas Bells ;" Ruskin's Modern Painters, Vol. V., "Peace." 

''Peace hath her victories, 
No less renowned than war." — Milton. 

" Dream not helm and harness 
The sign of valor true ; 
Peace hath higher tests of manhood 
Than battle ever knew." — Whittier. 



Peace is (1) Peace with God. (2) Peace with Heaven ; a harmony 
and sympathy with all that is there. (3) Peace with nature ; a harmony 
with all its laws. (4) Peace with self ; all the various faculties of our 
nature being in accord, and working harmoniously. (5) Peace with 
men. (6) Peace of an approving conscience. (7) Peace of a submissive 
will. (8) Peace that comes from victory. (9) A Peace which is 
eternal, unbroken, perfect. 



Compare the fulfilment of this promise in the Acts, — Peter rejoic- 
ing in prison ; Paul and Silas singing praise in the jail at Philippi ; 
Paul's good cheer on the wrecked ship, " rejoicing evermore." 



XIV: 28-31 ST. JOHN 405 



28. Ye have heard bow I said unto you, I go away, and come 
again unto you. If ye loved me, ye woulo rejoice, because I 
said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. 

29. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, 
when it is come to pass, ye might believe. 

30. Hereafter I will not talk much with you : for the prince 
of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. 

31. But that the world may know that I love the Father; 
and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. 
Arise, let us go hence. 



A. ». 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April 6. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 

at the 

Lord's 

Supper. 



Library. — Professor Drurnmond's Pax Vobiscum (James Pott &Co.). 
Tlie Hymns " Peace, Perfect Peace ; " and Mrs. Stowe's " When Winds 
are Raging o'er the Upper Ocean." 



Peace, Two Pictures of. — " In the Pitti Palace at Florence, are two 
pictures hung side by side, one by an English artist, the other by a Flor- 
entine. One is a picture of a stormy sea, with its mountain waves, 
and black clouds, and fierce lightning flashing across, and revealing in 
the waters a human face racked with the agony of helpless despair. 
The other is a like stormy sea, with as fierce lightning, and as threaten- 
ing waves and clouds ; but in the midst of the waves is a rock, against 
which the waves dash in vain, and in the cleft of a rock is some green 
herbage and flowers and a dove sitting on her nest, — all safe, because 
defended by the cleft rock." — Waldo Messaros. 



Two Pictures of Peace. —Two painters each painted a picture to 
illustrate his conception of rest. The first chose for his scene a still, 
lone, lake, among the far-off mountains. The second threw on his can- 
vas a thundering waterfall, with a fragile birch tree bending over the 
foam ; at the fork of the branch, almost wet with the cataract's spray, 
a robin sat on its nest. The first was only Stagnation ; the last was 
Rest. . . . Christ's life outwardly was one of the most troubled 
lives that was ever lived ; tempest and tumult, tumult and tempest, the 
waves breaking over it all the time till the worn body was laid in the 
grave But the inner life was a sea of glass. The great calm was 
always there. At any moment you might have gone to Him and found 
rest. And even when the bloodhounds were dogging Him in the streets 
of Jerusalem, He turned to His disciples and offered them as a last legacy, 
" My Peace." 



406 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIV: 28-3 1 

Three Pillows of Peace.—" When I visited one day, as he was dying, 
my beloved friend Benjamin Parsons, I said, ' How are you to-day, sir ? ' 
He said, ' My head is resting very sweetly on three pillows, — infinite 
power, infinite love, and infinite wisdom.'" — Hoods Dark Sayings on a 
Harp. 



XV : I ST. JOHN 407 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE TRUE VINE AND ITS BRANCHES. 



1. I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 



A. D. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April 6. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 

at tlie 

Lord's 

Supper. 



What May Have Suggested the Comparison.— 
" Those who assign the discourses to the walk to the 
Mount of Olives, down to Kedron through the vine- 
yards, draw the figure from the vineyards, and the 
fires burning along the sides of the Kedron valley in 
order to consume the vine-cuttings (Lange, Godet)." 
Others think it was suggested by the great golden 
vine over the Golden Gate of the temple, which Jose- 
phus says was so large that it " had clusters as long as a man." He 
also says that the Golden Gate had no doors that could be closed, but 
through it "the clear and unexcluded heaven shed its light within, and 
from without appeared the whole gilded entrance of the first house, all 
whose interior shone with gold." 



According to Joseph ben Gorion, its " leaves and buds were wrought 
of gleaming reddish gold, but its clusters of yellow gold, and its grape- 
stones of precious stones. " There was such a vine over the throne of 
the king of Persia, which was greatly admired by Alexander the Great. 
This vine must have been often seen by the disciples. According to 
Jewish authorities, this vine kept growing by means of offerings of a 
leaf, or a cluster, or even of a branch. Thus in many ways this vine 
may well have symbolized Christ, the true vine, most glorious and 
precious, that overhangs the gate to the Heavenly Temple. 



Palestine the Land of the Vine,— While the above is very inter- 
esting and suggestive, yet such a vine is too mechanical and dead to 
even suggest the deepest and best truths Jesus taught by calling Him- 
self The True Vine. 



' ' The vine stamped on certain coins of the region is the symbol of 
Palestine ; for the grape is the king of fruits there." 



408 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XV : I 

" No less than five of our Lord's parables refer to the vine. The Land 
of Promise was a land of vineyards ; and Judaea especially, with its 
temperate climate, and elevated rocky slopes, was admirably adapted 
for the culture of the vine. A vineyard on a terrace or brow of a hill 
is the first object that strikes the eye of the traveler when he approaches 
Judaea from the desert. A vineyard on a hill, fenced and cleared of 
stones, was the natural emblem of the kingdom of Judah ; and this 
heraldic symbol was engraved on the coins of the Maccabees, on the 
ornaments of the temple, and on the tombstones of the Jews. It is not 
without significance that the vine should be thus peculiar to Judaea. 
One of the most perfect of plants, it belongs to one of the most perfect 
of countries as regards its physical structure. Contrast the grapes of 
Eshcol, the variegated scenery of that valley, and its geological con- 
formation, with the hard dry woody fruits of the parched plains of 
Australia." — Hugh Macmillan's Bible Teachings in Nature. 



I am the True Vine. — Note in how many respects the vine is a fit- 
ting symbol of Christ : 

(1) " The vine belongs to the highest order of the vegetable kingdom. 
It is the most perfect of plants. For the harmonious devel- 
opment of every part and quality — for perfect balance of The Vine 
loveliness and usefulness, none equals the vine. Its stem the Most 
and leaves are among the most elegant in shape and hue, Perfect of 
its blossoms among the most fragrant and modest, while its Plants, 
fruit is botanically the most perfect ; and painters tell us, 

that to study the perfection of form, color, light, and shade, united in 
one object, we must place before us a bunch of grapes." — Hugh Mae- 
Millan. 

(2) " It is perfectly innocent, being one of the few climbing plants 
that do not injure the object of their support. It has no thorns — no 
noxious qualities." — MacMillan. 

(3) Vines, like other plants, obtain more of their substance from 
the rain and air of heaven than from the earth. Prof. Atwood says 
that only one one-hundredth of wheat is from the soil. Some buck- 
wheat was planted in water, with a minute quantity of plant food, and 
there grew from it a healthy plant with tropical luxuriance weighing 
4,786 times as much as the seed. Another curious experi- 
ment has been tried. A tree weighing five hundred pounds More From 
was planted in two hundred pounds of dried earth, placed Heaven 
in an earthen vessel. Everything except air and water Than Earth, 
was excluded by a perforated metallic cover ; and for five 

years nothing was added but pure water. At the end of five years the 
tree was taken out and weighed. It had gained one hundred and 



XV : I ST. JOHN 409 



A. ©. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April b. 

THE NIGHT 
BEEORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 
at the 

Lord's 
Supper. 



sixty-nine poinds, while the soil had lost but two 
ounces. Nearly the whole growth of the tree was 
from the air and tain of heaven. So, while we must 
live on the earth, our best growth and life are derived 
from heavenly food. 

(4) ' ' He wished to represent the permanent spiritual 
union of His disciples with Himself ; and therefore a 

perennial and not an annual plant must be 
Having selected, a dicotyledonous tree with 
Many branches, and not a monocotyledonous 
Branches, tree without branches. The image of the lily suited Him 
when His own personal loveliness, purity, and fragrance, 
and His own short-lived single life on earth were intended to be shad- 
owed forth ; and the image of the palm-tree, which has no branches, 
suited the disciples when their own individual excellence was 
ortrayed." 

(5) " All its parts are useful. Its foliage affords a refreshing shade 
from the scorching sunshine. Its fruit was one of the finest oblations 
to the Divinity, and, along with bread, is one of the primary 

and essential elements of human food. In common with Its 
other plants, it purifies the air — feeding upon what we Usefulness, 
reject as poison, and returning it to us as wine that maketh 
glad the heart, and in the process maintaining the atmosphere in a fit 
condition for our breathing. ' ' 

(6) The vine fitly represents the fruitfulness of Christ and of believers 
in Him ; "and hence the plant that can do this adequately 

must be a cultivated one — not a mere herb of the field, Its Fruit; 
like corn, yielding fruit only on the top of a stalk, but a from All 
tree yielding fruit on every branch." " The Palm," says a Soils, 
writer in the Sunday School Times, "needs to be planted 
near living waters, and the olive gives much of its strength to wood 
and leaf. But the vine can find sustenance on rocky hillsides, as its 
w 7 hole being goes out in its fruitage." " It adapts itself to almost any 
kind of soil, climate or location." 

(7) " Believers exhibit, with general features of resemblance, con- 
siderable personal differences : and the plant which is to 
represent this quality must admit of considerable varia- Variations, 
bility within certain distinct and well-recognized limits. 

All these qualifications meet in the vine, and in the vine alone." — 
Macmillan. 

" In all these aspects the vine is the shadow of Him who is altogether 
lovely — who unites in Himself the extremes of perfection — who is 
continually doing good — who beautified our fallen world by His 



410 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XV : I 

presence, changed its wilderness into an Eden, and matte the polluted 
atmosphere of our life purer by breathing it, and is now transforming 
our evil into good, and our sorrow into a fruitful and strengthening 
joy." — Macmillan : Bible Teachings in Nature. 



Library. — Bible Teachings in Nature, by Hugh Macmillan, LL. D., 
F. R. S. E. (Macmillan), Ugo Bassi's Sermon in the Hospital, a 
poem on the vine and its branches (10 cts., Pott & Co.). Barry on 
Fruit Culture. The lately discovered Teaching of the Apostles shows 
how frequently " The Vine of David " was used as a metaphor for the 
Christ, the son of David, in the times when Christ lived, and probably 
in the years immediately preceding His coming. 



Ye Are the Branches. — "A beautiful theory has been established 
in vegetable physiology which illustrates in a most striking manner the 
nature of the union between Christ and believers, as symbolized by a 
vine and its branches. This theory proceeds on the assumption that all 
plants, without exception, are strictly annual. A tree, under which 
class the vine, of course, is included, is generally supposed to be a single 
plant, like a primrose, or a lily, only that it does not fade in autumn, 
and is possessed of a perennial growth. A tree is now 
found to be, not a single individual, a single plant, but, on The Nature 
the contrary, an aggregate of individuals, a body corporate, of a Tree 
The idea involved in a genealogical tree is exactly that or Vine, 
which is involved in a natural tree ; the former consisting 
of living and dead persons, as the latter consists of living and dead 
plants. In its full wealth of summer foliage and vigor, a tree is literally 
a vegetable colony, propagating its individual plants vertically in the 
air, instead of spreading them out horizontally over the earth's surface, 
like herbaceous plants. " — Hugh Macmillan. 



The Dependence op the Branches. — Every true Christian is a 
branch of Christ, and connected with him in the most vital manner. 
The life of Christ flows through his soul. The spirit of Christ fills his 
spirit. Each Christian is a branch growing on the Tree of Life. 

As the vine supports the branches, and its life flows through them all 
and is their life, so Jesus is the sustaining power of the Christian king- 
dom, and the source of the life in all His disciples. They are all born from 
above by the Spirit. They all live in and through Him. "To live is 
Christ." Take Christ away from the church, and it is dead, a separated 
branch, a house without a foundation, a limb amputated from the body. 



XV : I ST. JOHN 41 1 



Individuality of the Branches. — " The discover- »p- 



A. D. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April 6. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 

at the 

Lord's 

Supper. 



ie> of vegetable physiology have shown that every 
branch is, in fact, a tree perfectly distinct and com- 
plete in itself : a tree which, by means of roots struck 
into the parent tree, derives its life, and sends out its 
leafage. A tree is, in truth, a colony of trees, one 
growing on another — an aggregate of individuals — 
a body corporate, -losing nothing, however, and merg- 
ing nothing of its own individuality. It is charming 
to study a scientifically written biography of a tree, 
giving an account of its cells and pores and hairs, telling the tale of its 
evolutions and its education ; its infinite relations with all the elements, 
and how it is affected by the chemistries of nature ; tracing it from its 
first faint filament to its full wealth of foliage and its final sweep of 
extension ; thereby revealing through this miracle of the forest the 
glory of God. But, for the reasons suggested by some of the thoughts 
just confessed, interesting as is the story of a tree, a Christian will find 
the life-story of a mere branch scarcely less interesting, for it teaches 
him how to connect the ideas of total dependence and perfect indi- 
viduality ."— C. Stanford, D.D. 

The Variety of the Branches. — " There may be a hundred 
branches in a vine ; their place in reference to each other may be far 
apart ; they may seem to have but a very distant connection with each 
other ; but having each a living union with the central stem, they are 
all members of the same vine, and every one of them therefore is a 
member one of the other. Some of the branches are barely above the 
ground ; some peer higher than all the rest ; some are weighted with 
fruit, much fruit rich and fine ; some bear but little fruit and that only 
small and inferior ; some occupy important and central positions ; some 
are seemingly insignificant, and look as though they might readily be 
dispensed with ; as though, indeed, the tree would be healthier and 
more graceful without them ; some are old and well grown, thoroughly 
strong and established ; others are young, delicate, and need develop- 
ment. But wiiatever variety there may be among the branches in size, 
circumstances, or state, they all form a part of one complete, harmoni- 
ous and like-natured whole. The vine-stem is the common centre, and 
in it all partake of a common life." — J. J. Wray. All bear the same 
kind of fruit, with an emphasis on different qualities of color, flavor 
and size. 



The Harmony of the Branches. — Mr. Ruskin in the fifth volume 
of his Modern Painters, shows us how the leaves array themselves in 
such a way as to give each one the most possible sunlight. 



412 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XV : 2 



2. Every brauch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away : and every branch 
that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 

Unity in Variety of the Branches. — " Each member has his own 
personality, his own individual existence ; and yet, living or dead, he is 
regarded as a scion, or branch, of one common stock — a component 
and integral part of one tree. The same bond unites each to all ; the 
same sap pervades all ; the same life animates them all. Christ is not 
the trunk, nor the branches, but the whole vine ; they are members of 
His body, of his flesh, and of His bones." — Hugh Macmillan. 

"We thus see what is the real unity of the church. It is not a unity of 
form, it is not a unity of a single branch. The branches, the great 
denominations and societies, and the smaller boughs of individual 
churches and lesser organizations, and the twigs, or individual Chris- 
tians, are not wrought or twisted into one branch ; but are one because 
they are Christ's, because the same spirit and life and loyalty and love run 
through them all, and they all bear the same heavenly fruit. No great 
organization, but Christ Himself, is the vine that bears all the branches. 



A Vital, Not a Mechanical Union.— " It is, of course, possible to 
attach a bough or branch either to the stem of a vine or the trunk of 
any tree by artificial means, and so to secure a kind of external 
union therewith. A length of cord or iron wire may accomplish a poor 
and pitiful result like that ; but the stem knows it not and the branch is 
withered, however painfully and skilfully art may struggle to endorse 
the lie. In the same way we may be mechanically and externally united 
to the visible Church of Christ. That is entirely an affair of contrivance, 
a mere matter of ligature or glue. It is altogether and at most a con- 
cern of nomination, register or ceremonial. But let it be remembered 
that this is in itself stark naught. Never a rotten branch on the floor 
of a forest, a branch that breaks and crackles beneath the foot of a 
passer-by, is more dead than we are, if the hasp and staple of Church 
membership, if the hook and eye of registration, if the glue of mere 
sectarian adhesion, if the paint of mere external profession are all that 
holds us on to the Christ of God. — J. J. Wray. 



How the Branch Grows. — " This growing is to be the growth of a 
branch: not by accretion, by adding to the surface, but by strength and 
development from within. You may make a mole hill into a mountain 
by bringing a sufficiency of material to it, to swell the rising pile ; but 
trees and branches expand from within : their growth is the putting 
forth of a vital but unseen force. The life-power in the stock, being 



XV: 2 ST. JOHN 413 



Thursday Ere. 
April 6. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 

at tlie 

Lord's 

Supper. 



also in the bough, compels an outward exhibition of 

results in progressive keeping with the vigor and 

strength of the supplies. So the believer ' grows up ' 

into Christ, into ever-increasing holiness, influence 

and grace through the Divine afflatus which is at work 

within his soul, for it is thus that ' God worketh in 

you ' more and more ' to will and to do of His good 

pleasure.' By this inner power the branches of a tree 

have a wonderful power of assimilation. They take 

hold upon all surrounding forces and turn them to 

advantage. The dew that falls, the gases of the atmosphere, the 

descending rain, the chemistry of the sunlight, all are drawn into it ; 

all are made a part of itself, are made to serve its purpose and to nurse 

its health. The very storms that blow, the alternations of weather that 

test and try it and ofttimes seem to work it damage, are all made to 

consolidate its fibres, to quicken the action of its sap, and send new 

energy through every vein, a stronger life-thrill into every leaf. So 

grows the righteous soul into higher, stronger, more mature religious 

life." — Rev. J. J. Wray. 



2. He Taketh Away. — As long as there is hope of their bearing 
fruit they are permitted to remain, and are pruned and cared for. (See 
Luke 13 : 6-9.) If this is of no avail, they are taken away, (1) by the 
natural withering away of those who draw no nourishment from the 
true vine. They lose their interest, and practically sever their connection 
with Christ and his church. (2) By excommunication, the outward 
expression of their severance from Christ the true vine. (3) By per- 
secution and trials ; by demands on their purse, or time, and calls to 
self-denying service. (4) By the separation from God's people at death 
and the judgment. (See Matt. 21 : 19, 20. See under verse 6.) 



He Purgeth it. — '-'A multitude of references, perhaps the best gath- 
ered up in Ugolini's Thesaurus, under the head Be Re Jxustica Veterum 
Hebrceonun, show that the rule laid down in verse 2 was the ancient 
one ; as it is now in Palestine, where the French cultivators of the vine 
have not introduced other principles of pruning. The 'purging' or 
' cleansing,' was the pruning ; and the same thing is often expressed in 
old English books on husbandry by the word ' purge ; ' thus tranferring 
the Oriental figure to our language. In our Revised Version, the figure 
is kept better than in the Authorized, by substituting ' cleanseth ' for 
' purgeth,' in verse 2, and then keeping the word ' clean ' in verse 3, to 
correspond with the Greek, and to show that pruning the vine is referred 
to in the ' clean ' of verse 3. In the Greek, the parable is not inter- 



414 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XV : 2 

rupted by verse 3, as in our Authorized Version. While the ' cleansing ' 
and ' clean' here are the same words used throughout the Bible for cere- 
monial purification, the language, it should be noted, follows the com- 
mon Oriental view that uncleanliness was to be removed.'" — Sunday 
School Times. 



" There is a curious play of words in sound between the taking away 
(hairei) of the fruitless branch and the purging (kathairei) of the fruit- 
ful branch." — Cambridge Bible. 



Pruning. — In a large greenhouse where they raise the best roses I 
ever saw, often in the winter worth their weight in gold, I asked the 
florist why his roses were so much better than others. His reply was: 
" I love them so." But every one could see that he showed his love by 
great richness of soil, and close pruning. His whole object was to 
obtain not the most luxuriant vines, but the most and the best roses. 
But of all plants the vine seems to need the most pruning. 



Pruning — An Experience. — " I stood last summer in a magnificent 
hothouse, where the luscious clusters of grapes were all around and 
above; and the owner said, 'When my new gardener came, he said he 
would have nothing to do with these vines unless he could cut them 
clear down to the stock; and he did, and we had no grapes for two 
years; but this is the result.' It did not look much like fruit when the 
stocks stood bare and the floor was heaped with cuttings; but the 
gardener looked over the two years, and saw what we were seeing and 
tasting. And thus we naturally turn to our Saviour's words: 'Every 
branch in Me which beareth fruit, He purgeth it that it may bring forth 
more fruit.' God prunes the trees in His own garden, and Faith looks 
away from the stock which seems so cruelly cut down, and sees the 
riches of coming years. Any one can see, at a glance, how Paul has 
learned this lesson, when he says of tribulation, and distress, and peril 
— ' Nay, in all these things we are abundantly the conquerors through 
Him that loved us.' Rom. viii:37." — M. R. Vincent in Gates to the 
Psalm. Country, The " First Psalm.'' 



Pruning is executed a great many ways besides by afflictions — the 
limitations of school life, the restraints of desire, the things one must 
give up in order to success, the cutting off from time or expense of the 
things one wants, in order to do right, or to help others, — are all a part 
of the pruning process. 



A. I>. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April 6. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 
at I he 

Lord's 
Supper. 



XV : 2 ST. JOHN 415 

Purging by Pruning. — " But the principal method 
of purging is by pruning ( ' purge ' is used in old Eng- 
lish books on husbandry, to express pruning). There 
is no tree that requires so much pruning as the vine. 
In the fall nearly all the branches are cut off, either 
close to the stump, or to the main branches, and 
during the summer the luxuriant growths are con- 
tinually taken away so as to throw all the life and 
strength into the vine and into the fruit. Young . 
vines are not allowed to bear fruit for three years. 
The fruit is thinned out so as to leave the rest to grow into perfec- 
tion. ' Never prop a fruit tree ' is sound advice ; let it bear only so 
much as can grow thriftily. Excessive bearing injures the vine. 
The poorer clusters are removed." I saw some large and beautiful 
chrysanthemums the other day. I wished a plant full of them. The 
florist said that it was impossible, for only one flower was allowed to 
grow on each plant. All other buds are removed. Moderately large 
flowers can be grown three on a plant ; and only small to medium ones 
where there is no pruning of the plant. 



Thinning Fruit aids perfection of fruit. Men sometimes try to bear 
more kinds of fruit than they are able to bear, and are tempted to prop 
the tree with tonics. "They are overworked, overburdened and over- 
taxed." They try to do too many things, and do nothing well. " The 
best way is to shake the tree, and free it of the extra fruit. Prune, clip, 
cut, pluck, and reduce the fruit till it becomes manageable, and until the 
tree can support its burden, and then let every branch be loaded with 
fruit that comes to perfection, but not overloaded with fruit which 
never will reach its full development." — H. L. Hastings, D. D. 



Pruning the Branch That Bears Fruit. — ' ' We must be guarded 
against the idea that affliction of itself can develop the fruitfulness of 
the Christian life. We find that in the fruit tree the pruning is only of 
use when there are latent or open buds to develop. And so, unless we 
have Christian life and Christian capabilities, affliction, so far from 
doing us good, will only harden and injure us. But, while affliction 
cannot impart spiritual life, there are instances in which God uses it to 
quicken the soul dead in trespasses and sins. And here, too, we find an 
analogy in nature. The buds of plants almost always grow in the axil 
— the vacant angle between the leaf and the stem, where the hard, 
resisting bark which everywhere else invests the surface of the plant, 
is more easily penetrated,, and allows the growing tissues to expand 



416 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XV : 3, 4 



3. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 

4. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except 
it abid in the vine ; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 

more easily. The axil is, so to speak, the joint in the armour of the 
stem. ' A wound is virtually" an axil, for the continuity of the surface 
is there broken, and consequently the resistance of the external inves- 
titure diminished.' " — Macmillan. 



Live Branches Only Are Pruned. — Vines are pruned because they 
are of value, and have greater possibilities than they have realized. 
The artist sees greater perfection possible to his best picture. The 
metallurgist sees greater purity for gold, greater strength in steel, 
where the common observer sees perfection. 

" It fares exactly so with God and some of His elect servants. Men 
seeing their graces, which so far exceed the graces of common men, 
wonder sometimes why they should suffer still, why they seem to be 
ever falling from one trial to another. But He sees in them — what 
no other eye can perceive — the grace which is capable of becoming 
more gracious still ; and in His far-looking love for His own, who shall 
praise Him not for a day, but for an eternity, He will not suffer them to 
stop short of the best whereof they are capable. They are fruit-bearing 
branches, and just because they are so he prunes them, that they may 
bring forth more fruit." — R. C. Trench, D. D. 



3. Now Ye Are Clean. — In one of his lectures at Northfield, 
Arthur Pierson " took in one hand a glass full of inky water, to repre- 
sent the evil remaining in the heart after one has renounced known sin. 
In this condition a man presents himself to God, clean in the intentions 
and purposes of his life, unconscious of indulged sin, and asks God to 
do for him what he cannot do for himself. In the other hand was held 
a pitcher of golden syrup, which he continued slowly pouring into the 
glass, until gradually every drop of inky water had been displaced and 
replaced by the golden fluid." 



v- Abide in Me and I in You. — ' ' One of the great modern painters, who 
had painted successfully the figure and face of Christ, said that he was 
not a Christian when he began, but that lie had become one as he 
painted Him, and that he had come to have the right to picture Him 
because lie at length felt Him. One could hardly keep on painting 
Christ forever without sometime confronting the question of how much 



XV : 3, 4 ST - JOHN 417 

right lie had to do it. Apparently this man had been >^> ^> 

allowed to paint until the theme had so won its way A. D. 30. 

into his soul that he could not let it go, and would try Thursday Eve. 

to deserve it rather than surrender it." 6 " 

THE NIGHT 

BEFORE THE 

CRUCIFIXION. 

The Scented Clay. — A Persian fable runs thus: Discourse 
" One day, as I was in the bath, a friend of mine put Lord's 

in my hand a piece of scented clay. I took it, and said Supper. 

to it, ' Art thou musk or ambergris? for I am charmed *J* » 

with thy perfume.' It answered, 'I was a despicable 

piece of clay, but I was some time in the company of the rose, and the 

sweet quality of my companion was communicated to me.' 



Power of Companionship. — " One's companions have much to do 
with making one's moral atmosphere. Perhaps more lives are ruined 
through the corruption which comes from evil companionship than 
from any other external cause. ' Go with the wolves,' says a Spanish 
proverb, ' and you will learn to howl.' ' Go with mean people,' says an 
English b} 7 -word, 'and you will find life mean.' There are few actions 
in a boy's life more important than the choosing of his friends ; yet this 
choice is too often left to the decision of circumstances, or to the pleas- 
ant preferences of the hour.'' 



When one that holds communion with the skies 
Has filled his urn where those pure waters rise, 
And once more mingles with us meaner things, 
'Tis e'en as if an angel shook his wings ; 
Immortal fragrance fills the circuit wide, 
That tells us whence his treasures are supplied." 



Rapp acini's Daughter. — We may learn the power for good of 
abiding with the good, through the power for evil by abiding with the 
evil. 

In his Mosses from an Old Manse, Hawthorne tells a weird story 
of a chemist named Rappacini, who was investigating the nature of 
poisons, and had a charming garden in which every plant and flower 
was poisonous. His beautiful daughter lived in this poison atmosphere 
till her whole nature became poisonous, so that at length flowers with- 
ered at her touch, insects flitting before her fell dead in her breath, and 
even spiders and reptiles perished, scorched and convulsed by her 
27 



418 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XV : 3, 4 

presence. And a young student, attracted by her beauty to walk in 
that Eden of poisons, was at length astonished and enraged to find him- 
self even by this partial abode there, so impregnated with the poison 
that the flies and spiders of his room withered in death when he breathed 
upon theni, and this poison fragrance surrounded him everywhere like 
an atmosphere. 

So whosoever lives in the paradise of fault-finding, his daily breath 
the poison fragrance of sins and errors, becomes himself contaminated, 
and contaminates others; while those who live with the good, in an 
atmosphere of purity and love, may become themselves filled with the 
beauty of holiness. 



Training Canaries by Companionship.— " In a small town called St. 
Audreasberg, Saxony, some seven hundred families are engaged entirely 
in the task of rearing and educating good canary singers. A great 
proportion of these singers is sent abroad, far or near — to London, 
to Australia and to the United States, where one single firm ships 
100,000 birds each year. These canaries are the inferior birds, and 
schreir, as they are called in Germany, on account of their notes. 
These schreir, which are bought for from seventy to eighty cents in the 
Harz, are sold for $2, $3 or $4 in America. The best birds are kept in 
Germany, where they are called hohlroller. A good hohlroller can not 
be had under $8 or $10 in the Harz, and $20 and $25 are no unusual 
prices. But such birds are certainly splendid singers. The Germans 
have quite a number of words, each of which applies to a different 
sort of tune, or intonation ; the beulrolle is in minor key ; klingerolle 
applies to silver tones ; koller to a warbling which reminds of the mur- 
mur of water ; gluchrolle is similar to the nightingale's notes, and one 
may say that every detail of the canary's song has been named and that 
for every one there is a standard of perfection which the expert fancier 
knows very well. The song of all canaries is not exactly similar. Each 
race has its special points, and while the one is great on beulrolle, for 
instance, it is weak on gluchrolle, while the case is reversed with 
another race. 

' ' Of course singing is a natural feature with canaries, but the influence 
of education is considerable. The educational curriculum begins in May 
for the young canaries, and they are, as soon as possible, separated from 
their parents. Education is all in this: Keep the young bird from 
lulling any but excellent singers. Some fifteen or twenty young 
canaries are put in one cage with an older bird, an especially good singer, 
and he teaches them the elements. They try to imitate him, and hence 
comes his beneficial influence. In August each of the young birds is 
put in a small cage and kept in the immediate vicinity of the cage of 



XV: 3 ,4 



ST. JOHN 



419 



the teacher. The best are put in the nearest vicinity 4* 
of the teacher." — Popular Science Magazine. 

Abide in Me. — 

" As some rare perfume in a vase of clay 

Pervades itVith a fragrance not its own — 
So, when thou dwellest in a mortal soul, 
All heaven's own sweetness seems around it 
thrown. 



A. D. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April 6. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 

at tlie 

Lord's 

Supper. 



The soul alone, like a neglected harp, 
Grows out of tune, and needs that hand divine ; 

Dwell thou within it, tune and touch the chords, 
Till every note and string shall answer thine. 

Abide in me ; there have been moments pure, 
When I have seen thy face and felt thy power ; 

Then evil lost its grasp, and, passion hushed, 
Owned the divine enchantment of the hour. 

These were but seasons beautiful and rare ; 

Abide in me — and they shall ever be ; 
I pray thee now fulfil my earnest prayer, 

Come and abide in me, and I in thee." 

— Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. 



Contact of Soul With Soul. — Souls grow by contact with other 
souls. The larger and fuller the spirit with whom we come into touch, 
and the more the points of contact, the more free and strong is our 
growth. Life kindles life, love awakens love, courage arouses courage, 
self-devotion inspires self-devotion, thought quickens thought. So that 
there is nothing in the universe like abiding in Christ to promote the 
growth of our souls in every good. How may we abide in Him f (1) By 
faith ; (2) by communion with Him ; (3) by doing His will ; (4) by doing 
all with right motives for His sake ; (5) by loving Him ; (6) by the means 
of grace, the Word of God, prayer, the Sabbath ; (7) by letting His word 
abide in us (v. 7), continuing in the school of Christ. 



" On one occasion there sat opposite me in the corner of a railway 
train a young man busily reading. He held his book so that I could see 
what it was, and I noticed that it was The Imitation of Christ. When 
the people had left the car, I sat beside him and said, ' You have a fine 
book there.' He looked at me and replied, 'lam glad you think so.' 



420 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XV : 5, 6 

5. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the 
same bringeth forth much fruit ; for without me ye can do nothing. 

6. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and 
men gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 

* Yes ' said I, ' it has been a great help to me, but I have found some- 
thing better.' ' Better ? said he, ' Do you think there is anything better 
than imitating Christ?' I said, ' There is forme, anyhow.' 'What do 
you mean?' he asked. ' I have always been a bad hand at imitation,' 
I answered. ' When I learned drawing, when I tried as a lad to throw 
the cricket ball, and since I became a minister, I have always been a 
poor hand at imitating ; and much more so. in imitating the Lord Jesus ; 
but if my drawing master could only have passed the spirit of his genius 
into me, he might have drawn through my hand or wrist, as with his 
own ; or if the captain of the cricket team cuuld have infused himself 
into me, he might have thrown that cricket ball as far through my hand 
as through his own ; and if the holy man with whom I was first associ- 
ated in the ministry could have inspired me, he could have preached as 
good a sermon by my lips as by his own. But all these suppositions are 
impossible, yet, in the case of the Lord Jesus, it is the simplest fact that 
He can impart Himself into the heart ; so that religion is no longer 
imitating Jesus Christ, but having Christ in the soul to repeat in us His 
own holy and blessed life.' " — Rev. F. B. Meyer, D. D. 



Fruit by Abiding in Jesus.—" The influence of religion in the human 
heart may be compared to the effect of electricity on a piece of iron. At 
first but an inert mass of cold metal, it becomes, by the presence of the 
electrical current, a magnet capable of activity in manifold ways, and 
of exerting a power which, when looked at in its original state, seemed 
an impossibility." — Phillips Brooks. 

5. Bringeth Forth Much Fruit. — Compare the grapes of Eshcol, 
which the spies brought from the Promised Land (Numb. 13:23-24). 
" Single clusters are mentioned weighing ten or twelve pounds. Tobler 
speaks of individual grapes as large as plums. Kitto (Phys. Hist, of 
Palestine, p. 330) states that a bunch of grapes of enormous size was 
produced at Welbeck from a Syrian vine, and sent as a present in 1819 
from the Duke of Portland to the Marquis of Rockingham. It weighed 
nineteen pounds, and was conveyed to its destination, more than 
twenty miles distant, on a staff by four laborers, two of whom bore it in 
rotation." — Cook, " The arrangement referred to in Numbers was 
probably made, not because the weight was too great for one person to 



XV : 5, 6 ST. JOHN 421 

carry, but in order to prevent the grapes from being 
crushed." — Ellicott. " In 1845, Dr. Mitchell, of Phila- 
delphia, grew a cluster of grapes that was two feet 
four and five-eighths inches in length and three feet 
across the shoulders or wings. The vine was only 
three years of age. Have we any record of a larger 
bunch ? " — Massachusetts Ploughman. " The heaviest 
bunch of black grapes that has ever been recorded 
weighed twenty-three pounds five ounces; length, 
twenty -four inches; and width across the shoulders, 
twenty-two inches." — Boston Cultivator. 



A. D. SO. 

Thursday Eve. 
April 6. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 

at the 

Lord's 

Supper. 



The Fruit. — The fruit is the faith, love, and obedience referred to 
so often in our last lesson. It includes all the fruits of the Spirit, — 
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, etc. (Gal. 5:22,23.) It includes the 
Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes and all the Sermon on the 
Mount. It includes all labors for the conversion of souls and for the 
blessing of mankind. It is not measured by the results, the amounts of 
money given, the number of souls saved, as we are too often inclined to 
measure fruit ; but by the love, the obedience, the graces, the devotion, 
which lead to these outward results, as we see in Christ's words about 
the widow's two mites. 

Good Fruit — " An old English poet and Christian pastor, noted for 
his quaint ideas, has left us some verses on a cluster of grapes which 
are worth recalling. On every bunch he fancied he saw the letters 
J and C over and over again repeated ; for as those letters were commonly 
written (not printed) two hundred years ago, they made two half- 
circles, and every two grapes, where they touched each other, gave the 
impression of these letters to the pious pastor. He pointed them out to 
one standing by, who asked him what the letters signified. He answered, 
'Joy and Charity.' 

1 Sir, you have not missed,' 
The man replied. ' It figures Jesus Christ. ' 

We may rmile at the odd notion ; but happy is the man who sees 
Jesus everywhere in what is good and sweet." — Bishop A. Cleveland 
Coxe, LL. D. in S. S. Times. 

The Romans designated the union of all the virtues in the word we 
render fruit ; and their word for bread comes from Pan, the representa- 
tive of Nature, whose stores we gather for our common sustenance in 
our pantries. 



422 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XV : 5, 6 

Grape-vine at Hampton Court. — The famous grape-vine at Hamp- 
ton Court, England, is probably the largest in the world. As the keeper 
was telling how many thousand clusters it bore, I said to him that the 
grapes seemed very small for Black Hamburgs. " Yes," he said, "an 
old vine cannot bear as large grapes and clusters as a younger one; but 
the grapes are sweeter and of finer flavor. They are kept for the 
Queen's use." It is true, and it is a comfort, that with the lesser quan- 
tities of fruit old age can bear for the Lord, the quality of the fruit may 
be better, and the flavor more heavenly. 



" Do not imagine that you have got these things because you know 
how to get them. As well try to feed upon a cookery book. " — Prof. 
Drummond. 

" Oh, how many a glorious record 
Had the angels of me kept, 
Had I done instead of doubted, 
Had I warred instead of wept." 



Growth is Slow. — ' ' No great thing is created suddenly, any more 
than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I 
answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom , then bear 
fruit, then ripen." — Epictetus ; Thomas Wentworth Higginson's 
translation. 



Growing by the Power of God. — "No man can make things grow. 
He can get them to grow by arranging all the circumstances and fulfill- 
ing all the conditions, but the growing is the work of God. 
What man can do is to place himself in the midst of a chain of 
sequences.' 'While man prays in faith, God acts bylaw.'" — Prof. 
Drummond. 

The free flow of the sap, the nature of the soil, the wealth of sunshine, 
the carefulness of the culture, all have to do with the quantity and 
quality of the fruit. 

" If only we strive to be pure and true, 
To each of us there will come an hour 
When the tree of life shall burst into flower, 
And rain at our feet the glorious dower 
Of something grander than ever we knew." 



Room for Improvement. — If it be true, as some one has said, that 
" the largest room in the world is the room for improvement," then it is 
also true that in this great room there should be a very busy activity. 



XV : 5, 6 ST. JOHN 423 



A.D. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April 6. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 

at the 

Lord's 

Supper. 



Improvement is what the world is constantly seeking 

for. The principle is tersely expressed in the old 

maxim that the man who makes two blades of grass 

grow where but one grew before is a benefactor of his 

race. By far the greater number of devices registered 

in the Patent Office are intended as improvements on 

other devices that have gone before. There is no 

fruit that has been more improved in quality, variety 

and abundance than the grape. There is nothing in 

the moral world more capable of improvement than 

the heavenly fruits our lives should produce — improvement not only 

in quantity but in quality. 

6. He is Cast Forth as a Branch and is Withered. — "A ball 
of twine or a bag of shot cannot be called a whole. If you cut off a 
yard of the twine, the part cut off has all the qualities and properties 
of the remainder, and is perhaps more serviceable apart from the rest 
than in connection with it. A handful of shot is more serviceable for 
many purposes than a bagful, and the quantity you take out of the 
bag retains all the properties it had while in the bag ; because there is 
no common life in the twine or in the shot, making all the particles one 
whole. But take anything which is a true unity or whole — your body, 
for example. Different results follow here from separation. Your eye 
is useless taken from its place in the body. You can lend a friend your 
knife or your purse, and it may be more serviceable in his hands than 
in yours; but you cannot lend him your arms or your^ears. Apart 
from yourself, the members of your body are useless, oecause here 
there is one common life forming one organic whole. 

" It is thus in the relation of Christ and His followers. He and they 
together form one whole, because one common life unites them." — 
Prof. Marcus Dods. 

The Penalty of Not Abiding in Christ. — "The penalty of not 
bearing fruit is the not being able to bear it, the very capabilities of 
service being withdrawn and taken away. Ah, what a mournful thing 
it is to watch the gradual withering, and, so far as we can see, the final 
death, of a branch which once promised to bear much fruit ! Would it 
were a rarer sight ; but, alas ! it is not rare. Strange as this may 
sound, there is many a man who has followed himself, all that once 
constituted his better self, to his own grave. He is no mourner — would 
he were, for then there might be hope — but he is an assister at the 
grave of his own better hopes and holier desires, of all wherein the true 
life of his soul consisted ; which all is dead and buried, though he, a 



424 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XV : 5, 6 

sad survivor of himself, may still cumber the world for a while, till he 
too ' with sparkless ashes loads an unlamented urn.' . . . The 
vine stock in Palestine is usually suffered to grow six or eight feet 
high, and the branches are either trained laterally on a trellis, or suf- 
fered to arch over with the branches of the next vine, or to hang in a 
trail or canopy. The vine stock often becomes very stout and thick, so 
as to look like a tree stump. The branches are most frequently spared 
but for a single season. Their first opportunity to bear fruit is usually 
their only one." — Sunday School Times, 



Library. — Bushnell's Sermons for the New Life, "The Capacity of 
Religion Extirpated by Disuse." 

Decay of the Dead Plant. — The forces of nature, the energies of 
God in action are forever working to the removal by decay of whatever 
is dead, — a dead branch, a dead arm, a dead plant.'' The rain and sun- 
shine that make it flourish when alive destroy it when dead. 

This applies to churches and to individuals. God does not desire to 
have fruitless churches large and prosperous. He lets them wither 
away. The churches that keep nearest to Christ will grow the fastest. 
The Christian that neglects his union with Christ will find that his reli- 
gious and moral life wither away in time. 



It is interesting to note that, according to a Jewish authority, the 
fruitless and withered branches of the vine were not regarded as fit 
wood for the sacred altar fires, either to save fruit-bearing trees from 
wanton destruction, or because " bearing no fruit, they were common 
and unclean affairs, which might be used for any common fuel, but 
still might form no part of the sacred contribution." — Sunday School 
Times. 

We see here an illustration of how the pious dead are still part of the 
church on earth. Their lives have helped to build up the branches 
which uphold the new branches. From each leaf a fiber goes to the 
root. The larger branches are the sum of all the smaller branches, as a 
river is the sum of all the streams that flow into it. 

The Artificial Rose. — " I hold in my hand an artificial rose ; let us 
suppose it is so like a real rose that no one here can see the difference. 
Is it a rose ? It is said that the Queen of Sheba, when she visited Solo- 
mon, brought two wreaths of roses, one real and one artificial, looking 
exactly alike, and desired to test his wisdom. Solomon ordered some 



XV : 7, 8 ST. JOHN 425 



7. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye sbal 
ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. 

8. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit ; s< 
shall ye be my disciples. 



A. ». 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April 6. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 

at the 

Lord's 

Supper. 



bees to be brought in, and they rested on the real 
flowers. The secret sweetness of the honey was 
known to them. A moral man may say he is as good 
as any Christian, and the world may see no difference. 
There is the inward sweetness of the spirit known to 
the Lord, and often to his true followers. 

" Let me drop a little attar of roses on my artificial rose so its scent will 
fill this room. That will not make it a rose ; so a reputation among 
men for active Christian works and acts will not make us Christians. 
I may take my rose to that wonderful rose bush in France that bears 
thousands of flowers, and place it in the center, and join it so carefully to 
the bush that you cannot detect it, — this would not make it a rose. I 
may have the highest office in the most perfect earthly church, and this 
would not make me a Christian. 

"We go out by the side of a dusty road, and pick a flower growing in 
the hedge. It is a single rose covered with dust, its leaves half eaten 
off. It is, however, a living rose, because it was connected with a living 
stem and root, life flowing from them to it. So if I am joined to Christ 
by faith, receiving life from Him through prayer, I am a Christian." — 
A. G. Tyng, in Sunday School Times. 



Gather Them and Cast Them Into the Fire. — " One sailing along 
the Syrian coast in autumn will see many fires of thorns and refuse, but 
few of vine-branches, though the vines are generally pruned in autumn. 
The vine-branches are oftener done up in fagots and sold for fuel. The 
language of the parable is thus very close to the Oriental custom. The 
thorns will generally burn immediately, without even pulling up or dry- 
ing ; but the vine branch is ' cast forth ' and ' withered,' and then gath- 
ered into fagots, and ' cast into the fire,' " — S. S. Times. 

7. Ye Shall Ask What Ye Will, and It Shall be Done Unto You. — 
" Because such are so imbued with God's will that they will ask what is 
God's will to give, for God's glory, in submission to His wisdom and 
love. It is always safe to answer prayers made in such circumstances. 
' Every true Christian will aim at great things, and ought to ask for 
great things, and expect great things.' " — Jacobus. No promise could 
be more adapted to the wants of this little band going forth like sheep 



426 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XV : 7, 8 

among wolves, amid unknown dangers and trials, to bring in the great- 
est kingdom ever known, to conquer the invincible Roman Empire, and 
the human heart, still more difficult to conquer. 



The Watch and the Child. — "I have a valuable watch, but I take 
good care not to give it to my little grandchild. You understand that ? 
It wouldn't take me long to give it, but I am not going to part with that 
watch until that child understands the value of it, and knows how to 
take care of it. God is bending over you waiting to breathe His Spirit 
into you, but you must first be able to receive. God longs to give you 
His best gift, but He withholds it until you have fulfilled the condi- 
tions. Fulfil those conditions to-day and you shall receive the gift of 
the Holy Ghost." — F. B. Meyer, D. D. 

8. That Ye Bear Much Fruit.— " It is related of the old preacher 
Franklin, that he chose for bis signet-ring a tree for the device, and a 
verse from the first psalm for the motto. And when near his end, 
being asked by his son (a preacher also, and to succeed him in his pas- 
toral office) for some word of condensed wisdom to be treasured in 
remembrance of him, and ever to serve as a prompter to duty, he whis- 
pered to him only this, ' Fruitful/ " — Dr. 0. S. Robinson. 



A Broken Branch. — "A symmetrical tree is a thing of beauty, but 
an orchard of beautiful yet barren trees would not be satisfactory to 
the owner. A fruit-bearing branch is valuable, whether it be shapely 
and fair or gnarled and broken. 

" Once upon a time, a very huge and ancient apple tree in an orchard 
set forth a suggestive parable in the face of passers-by, if those who ran 
but chose to read. 

"An immense branch, broken from the trunk but not severed from 
the root, was cast upon the ground by the high wind. There it lay 
along, the size of a tree itself, like a defeated giant, but not defeated 
after all. Its object was to bear fruit, and bear fruit it did. The tiny 
apples with which it was covered when it fell, grew apace and ripened, 
in spite of the fell disaster that visited the branch. It still had vital 
connection with the root, though torn from the trunk. The tree was 
marred, the branch broken, but in spite of all, it fulfilled its mission. 
Beauty, symmetry, a conspicuous place high in air among the other 
branches were not essential, although desirable. The vital thing, con- 
nection with the root, insured the life and fruitage. 

" So a maimed life, cast from its high place, injured by some sharp 
stroke, but not destroyed, may still be fruitful and also fair, may live 



XV: 9-1 1 ST. JOHN 427 



9. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you : con- 
tinue ye in my love. 

10. If ye keep ray commandments, ye shall abide in my 
love ; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and 
abide in his love. 

11. These things have I spoken unto yon, that my joy might 
remain in you, and that your joy might be full. 



A.©. SO. 

Thursday Eve. 

April 6. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 

at the 

Lord's 

Supper. 



in the sunlight, gladden the eyes and enrich the lives 

of others, if, at the root, there is still vital connection 

with the Infinite Source of life and love." — Julia H. Johnston, in 

Westminster Teacher. 



11. That My Joy Might Remain in You, Your Joy Full. — That 
you may have, not a thrill, a vanishing emotion, but permanent posses- 
sion of the same kind of joy that I have, and which can be obtained 
only in the same way. This joy is (1) the joy of a free activity in doing 
right, like the joy of motion in health, like the song of a bird in the 
morning. (2) The joy of entire consecration and submission to God. (3) 
The joy of doing good, of self-denial for others. (4) The joy of perfect 
faith in a wise and loving God, committing everything to his care. (5) 
Joy in the conscious love of God to us, communion and friendship 
with Him. (6) The joy of loving others. (7) The joy of seeing others 
saved. (8) The joy of victory. (9) In the end, outward delights and 
pleasures to correspond with the inward joy, as is always represented in 
the descriptions of heaven. 



This Description of Joy answers many of the objections that are- 
made to religion. (1) One says that religion is sour and gloomy, driving 
men out of every temple of pleasure with a whip of small cords, and 
posting "no trespassing here" against every field of delight. The 
answer is, " My joy in you, and your joy full." (2) Another says, 
" You are continually talking of the happiness of religion. It is merely 
another form of selfishness." The answer is, " Christ's joy in us." (3) 
Others say, " Your joy is wonderful, but it does not endure, — a mere 
passing cloud, or morning dew." The answer is, " Christ's joy, which 
endures forever, and which remains in His disciples." 



Joy a Matter of Cause and Effect. — " I knew a Sunday-school 
scholar whose conception of joy was that it was a thing made in lumps 
and kept somewhere in heaven, and that when people prayed for it, 
pieces were somehow let down and fitted into their souls. In reality joy 



428 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XV : 9-1 1 

is as much a matter of cause and effect as pain. No one can get joy by 
merely asking for it. (It cannot be gained by a conjuring trick, or 
tying it on, like grapes to a vine, or fruit to a tree.) It is one of the 
ripest fruits of the Christian life, and, like all fruits, must be grown. 
. . . Fruit first, joy next. Fruit-bearing is the necessary ante- 
cedent." — ProfessorDrummond, in Pax Vobiscum. 



No Joy by Seeking Joy. — Faith is rewarded, but not that imitation 
faith which seeks the rewards. Good deeds done for the sake of rewards 
have lost the soul of goodness, and ought not to be rewarded. "There 
is a Jewish story of a little boy who, while studying his Hebrew alpha- 
bet, was told that wmen he had learned his letters an angel would drop 
him a piece of money from the skies. Thereupon the little fellow, 
instead of redoubling his lesson study, began to look up to see the 
promised money drop from the skies, and so his progress in knowledge 
was stayed. There is a great deal of this kind of looking for the reward 
of work before the work itself is done. Men begin to look for the 
promised reward, instead of sticking at that which would bring it to 
them — or bring them to it. On every side there stand idle star-gazers 
expecting the dropping of unearned rewards from the skies ; and there 
they are likely to stand." — Sunday School Times. One object of 
Christ's teaching was that His disciples might possess true joy, because 
joy is the fragrance and the flower of a true life, as natural a result of 
obedience to His teachings as the blossoms are the natural outgrowth of 
a healthy plant. 



It is a great joy to be the conductors of God's blessings to others. 

" You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will, 
But the scent of the roses will hang round it still." — Moore. 



Joy is Duty, and Duty is Joy. — 

" 'Joy is Duty,' — so with golden lore 

The Hebrew rabbis taught in days of yore, 
And happy human hearts heard in their speech, 
Almost the highest wisdom man can reach. 

' ' But one bright peak still rises far above, 
And there the Master stands whose name is Love, 
Saying to those whom heavy tasks employ, 
' Life is divine when Duty is a Joy.' " 

— Quoted in Van Dyke's Gospel for an Age of Doubt. 



XV: Q-i I 



ST. JOHN 



429 



The Monk and the Bird. — One of Trench's poems, * 
" The Monk and the Bird," is the story of a monk who 
feared lest he should in heaven grow weary of the 
monotony of goodness and worship, and even the joys 
of Paradise should cloy the soul, and dull the sense of 
delight, like Rasselas in the Happy Valley. 

One day he went out into the woods, and while 
wandering, 

" Lo, he heard 
The sudden singing of a hird ! 
It seemed a thousand harpstrings ringing 
And long, long, 

"With rapturous look 
He listened to the song, 
And scarcely breathed or stirred." 



A.D. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April b. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 
at the 

Lord's 
Supper. 



He returned to the convent, 
thousand years. 



and learned that he had been gone a 



Such had been the power 
Of that celestial song. 

A thousand years had passed, 
And had not seemed so long 

As a single hour." 



Infinite Possibilities of Joy. — "When John Stuart Mill was 
passing through a grave and dark crisis of thought he found much 
solace in the study and practice of music. But one reflection tormented 
him very seriously : he was afraid the world's stores of music would be 
exhausted ; and then one day he and the very last song in all the earth 
would be standing together in a blank world under a dawn less sky. 
He thought of the octave consisting only of five tones and two semi- 
tones, and of the limited number of combinations possible within such 
a small range. And it seemed to him that most of these must have 
been already discovered ; and there could not be room for a long suc- 
cession of Mozarts and Webers, to strike out, as these had done, entirely 
new and surpassingly rich veins of musical beauty." — Rev. H. Elvet 
Lewis. But there are in the spiritual world a large number of elements, 
and the possibilities of combination are practically infinite. 



Library. — Prof. Drummond's Pax Vobiscum, p. 50-58, ''How Fruits 
Grow." Spurgeon's Salt- Cellars, p. 61, "On Joy in Religion." Earle, 
in his Bringing in the Sheaves, relates two incidents of the power of a 
joyful Christian life. 



430 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XV : 9-I I 

Fronting The Sun. 

1 ' Take to thy cheerless soul the lesson taught 
By the wise groom in that far Orient day, 
When all in vain the emperor made essay 
To mount the mettled charger which had caught 
Sight of his own weird shadow as it lay 
Exaggerate behind. ' 'Tis this has wrought 
His restless frenzy. When his face is brought 
To front the sun his fright will pass away.' 

" Turn thus, disheartened one, and face the light 
Of God's clear shining, and the darkness cast 
By thine own fears shall all be overpast ; 
And standing in His radiance thou shalt find 
That fear has vanished in the effulgence bright 
And that the shadow has been left behind." 



Lesson from Abandoned Farms. — " At a recent county fair in New 
England there was a continual crowd around one agricultural exhibit, 
which excited a great deal of admiration, and was the occasion of 
many remarks. The exhibit was marked ' Raised on an Abandoned 
Farm.' The articles shown were grown by a man who had formerly 
followed another occupation, upon a farm in a rough hill town, which 
its owner had found an undesirable piece of property, and had prac- 
tically deserted. The exhibit included twenty-two varieties of potatoes, 
several varieties of wheat, oats, barley, rye and beans, onions, pump- 
kins, squashes melons, beets, carrots, and turnips. The people kept 
the proprietor of the ' abandoned farm ' busy explaining how he pro- 
duced such wonderful results. His reply was that he took delight in 
farming, and did the best he could. ' Oh, yes,' said one bystander, some- 
what contemptously, ' he's farming for the love of it.' 'And I imagine,' 
said another bystander, ' that if the farmer who had the place before 
this man took it had farmed a little more for the love of it, he wouldn't 
have had any occasion to go off and leave it.' There was sound phil- 
osophy in this remark." — Youth's Companion. 



Infidelity Has No Songs, "for it has nothing to sing about. No 
hymns of joy rise from the hearts of those who walk in the murky 
shadows of sin and unbelief. One day, after having alluded to this fact 
in a public assembly, a skeptic came and promised to produce "an 
mndel hymn-book " in the afternoon. He brought it, — a book com- 
piled by an apostate minister, having nothing infidel in its title, and 



XV: I2-H ST. JOHN 43 



12. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I 
Jiave loved you. 

13. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down 
his life for his friends. 

14. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever 1 command you. 



A. ». 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April 6. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 

at tlie 

Lord's 

Supper. 



very little in its composition. It was made up of 
sucli infidel (?) hymns as Hail Columbia, The Old 
Oaken Bucket, and various other secular songs, with 
now and then a parody upon some well-known 
hymn, —a word left out here and another added there, — giving the 
compiler about as much right to claim the authorship of the hymns as 
borrowing a pair of boots and cutting the straps off would give him to 
be considered a shoemaker. And this was the boasted " infidel hymn- 
book" which was to confute the assertions we had made. We 
exhibited the book, and reiterated our statements. Infidelity is song- 
less because it is joy less, lifeless, hopeless." — H. L. Hastings, in The 
Christian. 



Joy a Safeguard Against Temptation. — The ancient Greeks fancied 
that on a certain shore dwelt the beautiful sirens, who sang so charm- 
ingly that the seamen sailing by were attracted almost irre- 
sistibly to the shore, where their vessels were wrecked on The Sirens 
the hidden reefs. Even the wise Ulysses did not dare sail and 
past these islands without binding himself to the mast, Orpheus, 
although he could see that the shores were lined with 
wrecks and the bleaching bones of those who had yielded to the sirens' 
seductions. But Orpheus took the wiser plan. With his own lyre he 
m^de sweeter music than the sirens' song, a music that saved both him- 
self aud the sailors from the deadly attraction of the charmed song, to 
which 

" Every one that listens, presently 

Forgetteth home, and wife, and children dear, 
All noble enterprise and purpose high, 

And turns his pinnace here." 

The safeguard against temptations of wealth and prosperity is found 
in the greater attractions of righteousness, and love, and duty, and God, 
which fill the soul with heavenly music. 

Library. — Trench's Poems, " Orpheus and the Sirens." 



14. Ye Are My Friends if Ye Do. etc. — Some writer has said that 
those who would be best friends need a third object in which both are 



432 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XV:I2-I4 

interested, and then, like radii of a circle, the nearer they come to this 
centre, the nearer they approach to one another. This object may be 
God Himself, or any of the great moral causes which belong to God's 
kingdom. 



Friendship. — Friendship is "a strong and habitual inclination in 
two persons to promote the good and happiness of each other." — 
Addison. 

' ' Hail, friendship ! since the world began, 
Heaven's kindest, noblest boon to man. 
All other joys, with meteor fire, 
Quenched in the mists of time, expire ; 
But thou, unhurt by fortune's blast, 
Shin'st brightest, clearest to the last." 

— Miss Holford. 



The highest friendship is very precious. "Oh, friendship! of all 
things most rare." — John Lilly. "All faithful friends went on a pil- 
grimage years ago, and none of them ever came back ; " so wrote one of 
the Puritan divines, whose heart was depressed at the time, most 
likely. — 0. S. Robinson. " Wretched, indeed, and probably deservedly 
wretched, is the man who lias no friends." — C. Kingsley. " Whosoever 
is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god." 



Library. — Dr. H. C. Trumbull's Tlie Master-Passion ; and The Blood 
Covenant. Rev. Hugh Black's Friendship. He writes on " The Miracle 
of Friendship," "The Culture of Friendship," "The W T reck of Friend- 
ship," "The Renewing of Friendship," "The Limits of Friendship." 
Rev. W. C. Gannett's sermon on " I Had a Friend," in Faith that Makes 
Faithful. Tennyson's In Memoriam. 

An excellent criticism on Trumbull's Master- Passion, in the Bibli- 
otheca Sacra for January, 1897. 



Friendship With One Another, Expressing More or Less Per- 
fectly, Friendship With Jesus. 

First. — The deepest friendship requires large similarities of sympa- 
thy and principles, the same general trend and quality of life, together 
with such personal differences as make one friend the complement of the 
other, that is, essential similarity, with such differences as make it a 
harmony, not identity. Two friends must be set to the 
same key, and each note must harmonize with the others. Harmony, not 
They form two parts to the same tune. They are like Identity 
complementary colors, — very different, and yet both of Character. 



A. D. 30, 

Thursday Eve. 
April 6. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 

at the 

Lord's 

Supper. 



XV: 12-14 ST. JOHN 433 

formed by rays of light, and so adapted one to the •!* 
other that they belong together, and each is brighter 
and better for the presence of the other. 

" Thou shalt know Him when He 
comes 
Not by any din of drums, 
Nor the vantage of his airs; 
Neither by His crown, 
Nor His gown, 
Nor by anything He wears. 
He shall only well-known be 
By the holy harmony 
That His coming makes in thee! " 

Second. — There must be something strong and noble in each partner 
to the friendship. " It is only great-hearted men who can be true 
friends; mean and cowardly men can never know what friendship 
means." — Charles Kingsley. There must be something worthy of love 
before we can obey Shakespeare's maxim: — 

" Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, 
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel." 

There is always something in each friend to which the other can look 
up. Each finds the other his superior in some things; and it is this 
conscious deficiency in himself, joined with an appreciation of the 
opposite quality and a longing to possess it, that binds friends 
together 

" With a love that shall not die 
Till the sun grows cold, 
And the stars are old, 
And the leaves of the Judgment day unfold." 

Third. — Friendship strengthens every good in a man. Two souls 
cemented together are far more than twice one. " A friend not only 
gives much needed counsel, but a man's friend bringeth his own 
thoughts to light, and whetteth his wits as against a stone, which itself 
cuts not. Tn a word, a man had better relate himself to a statue or 
picture than to suffer his thoughts to pass in smother. " — Bacon. 

Somewhere in her Middlemarch George Eliot puts it well: " There are 
natures in which, if they love us, we are conscious of having a sort of 
baptism and consecration; they bind us over to rectitude and purity by 
their pure belief about us; and our sins become the worst kind of sacri- 
lege, which tears down the invisible altar of trust." 
28 



434 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS. XV:I5~I7 

15. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his 
lord doetb : but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my 
Father 1 have made known unto you. 

16. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye 
should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain ; that whatso- 
ever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. 

17. These things I command you, that ye love one another. 

" It is a leverage to uplift character, because this same idealizing is a 
constant challenge between every two, compelling each to be his best. 
1 What is the secret of your life ? " asked Mrs. Browning of Charles 
Kingsley ; ' tell me that I may make mine beautiful, too.' He replied, 
' 1 had a friend.'' The reverence this implies borders closely upon wor- 
ship and the ennoblement that comes of that. What the dying Bun sen 
said as he looked up in the eyes of his wife bending over him, ' In thy 
face have I seen the Eternal ! ' " — W. C. Gannett. 

" May not make this world a Paradise 
By walking it together hand in hand, 
With eyes that, meeting, find a double strength. " 

" Behold what gross errors and extreme absurdities many do commit 
for want of a friend to tell them of them." "Two eyes see more than 
one." A true friend answers Burns' wish : 

" Oh, wad some power the giftie gie us, 
To see oursels as ithers see us ! 
It wad frae monie a blunder free us 
And foolish notion." 

One great advantage of friendship is its tendency to make a person 
like the one he loves. Even a good book uplifts the character ; how 
much more a good friend ! We feel 

" His being working in my own, 
The footsteps of his life in mine." 

Meditating often on an ideal character like that of Jesus, cannot help 
influencing us to become conformed to His image. 

Fourth. — Friendship is kept and cherished by little acts of love, by 
mutual helpfulness, by dwelling on the virtues rather than the faults of 
friends, by united service in some noble cause, by love of God. 

Fifth. — The sincere love of any one person tends to universal good 
will ; the love of all. A candle shines not only on him who lights it, 
but on all within reach of its rays. 



XV: 15-17 ST. JOHN 435 



Sixth. — The best earthly friendships can be found •!* 
nearest to perfection only in the highest type of 
Diarriage love, which best pictures the kingdom of 
God, and the life in the New Jerusalem. 



"False friends are like our shadows; they keep 
close to us while we walk in the sunshine, but leave 
us the instant we step into the shade." 



A. D. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April 6. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 

at tlie 

LiOrd's 

Supper. 



16. Ye Hate Not Chosen Me, Bct I Have Chosen You. — " Is there 
any recipe for winning friends ? In old Rome young men and maidens 
used to drink love-potions and wear charms to eke out their winsomeness. 
In this modern time is there any potion, any charm, for friend-making ? 
The question is worth asking, for it is no low ambition to wish to be 
desired in the world, no low endeavor to deliberately try to be love- 
worthy. But as to recipes for loveableness, the young soul in its 
romance laughs to scorn so kitchen-like a question. And right to laugh 
the young soul is ; for much in the business passeth recipe. We speak 
of ' choosing ' friends, of ' making ' friends, of ; keeping ' or of 
'giving up' friends; and if such terms were wholly true, the old 
advice were good, — in friend-making first consult the gods ! Jesus, it 
is said, prayed all the night before he chose His twelve. But the words 
are not all true ; friendship is at most but half ' made,' — the other 
half is born. What we can chiefly 'choose' and 'make' is, not the 
friend, but opportunity for contact. When the contact happens, some- 
thing higher than our will chooses for us. Fore-ordination then comes 
in. 'Matches are made in heaven,' and before the foundation of the 
world our friendships are arranged. ' Thine they w r ere and Thou gavest 
them me.' " 

We cannot cross the laws of attraction and repulsion ; we can only 
attract and be attracted, repel and be repelled, according to those laws. 
There is in Nature a great deal of that phenomenon called " love at sight. " 

And, on the other hand, there is in Nature that opposite experience 
of which Dr. Fell is the typical victim : 

' I do not love thee, Dr. Fell : 
The reason why I can not tell, 
But this alone I know full well — 
I do not love, thee, Dr. Fell.' 

Each of us is ringed about by two circles, both commonly called 
" friends." The outer circle is the circle of our Likers, the inner is the 



436 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XV : 1 8-27 



18. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 

19. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are 
not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world 
hateth you. 

20. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his 
lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept 
my saying, they will keep yours also. 

21. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they 
know not him that sent me. 

22. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they 
have no cloak for their sin. 

23. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. 

24. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had 
not had sin : but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. 

25. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in 
their law, They hated me without a cause. 

26. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father 
even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: 

27. And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the 
beginning. 



circle of our Lovers. The main secret of having Likers lies in justice 
carried to tliepoint of kindliness and courtesy. Now justice carried to 
the point of courtesy and kindliness is acquirable. The recipe for mak- 
ing Likers calls for no rare material : all I need lies right before me and 
around me in the opportunities of doing truthful, just, kind things by 
those I deal with. The recipe calls for no rare element, and the mixing 
and the making take no one day in the week. There is baking day, 
sweeping day, washing day, but no friend-making day. It is Monday's, 
Tuesday's, Wednesday's work, and lasts through Saturday and Sunday 
and the twenty-ninth of February. As one does his business he makes 
his Liker. There is no place nor time nor way of making him save as 
we go the rounds of common living ; for by common deeds of the com- 
mon life we all test likings. What is more, the recipe never wholly 
fails. Try it faithfully and it is sure to bring us likers. It is worth 
repeating to ourselves and emphasizing, — If we really wish to be, we 
can be 'wanted' in the world." (Then the author goes on to point 
out the higher side, which depends on what we are, and which we can- 
not choose and control for ourselves, except as our choosing determines 
character.) — W. C. Gannett in Faith That Makes Faithful. 

" The hand that rounded Peter's dome 
And groined the aisles of Christian Rome 
Wrought in sad sincerity — 



XV: 18-27 



ST. JOHN 



437 



Himself from God he could not free. 

He builded better than he knew; 

The conscious stone to beauty grew, 

Earth proudly wears the Parthenon 

As the best gem upon her zone, 

And Morning opes with haste her lids 

To gaze upon the Pyramids. 

These temples grew as grows the grass; 

Art might obey, but not surpass; 

The passive master lend his hand 

To the vast soul that o'er him planned.' 



A. J>. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April b. 

THE NIGHT 
BEFORE THE 
CRUCIFIXION. 

Discourse 

at the 

Lord's 

Supper. 



R. W. Emerson. 



Library. — Heredity, in Van Dyke's Gospel for an Age of Doubt . 



22. Cloke (irpo<}>a<riv). — From irpo, before, in front of, <|>t||xC, to say or 
affirm. Hence something which is placed in front of the true cause of 
a thing, a pretext). Compare 1 Thess. ii. 5 ; Acts xxvii. 30. pretext, 
carries the same idea, Latin, prcetextum, something woven in front 
with a view to concealment or deception. Rev., excuse. Wye, excusa- 
tion. The A. V. follows Tyndale : nothing to cloak their sins withale 
Latimer ("Sermons"): " By such cloaked charity, when thou dost 
offend before Christ but once, thou hast offended twice herein." The 
word appears in the low Latin cloca, a bell (compare the French cloche 
and English clock), and the name was given to a horseman's cloak 
because of its resemblance to a bell. The word palliate is from the 
Latin pallium, a cloak. — Prof. M. R. Vincent, in Word Studies. 



438 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVI : I-? 



CHAPTER XVI. 



THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH AND PEACE. 



1. These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not 
be offended. 

2. They shall put you out of the synagogues : yea, the time 
cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth 
God service. 

3. And these things will they do unto you, because they have 
not known the Father, nor me. 

4. But these things have I told you, that when the time shall 
come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these 
things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with 
you. ^ 4« 

5. But now I go my way to him that sent me ; and none of 
you asketh me, Whither goest thou? 

6. But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. 

7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth ; It is expedient for you that I go away : for 
if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send 
him unto you. 



A. D. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April 6. 

JERUSALEM. 

IN AN UPPER 

ROOM. 

Jesus' 

Farewell 

Words at 

the Institu- 
tion of 

His Supper. 



7. It is Expedient for You That I go Away. — "There was an 
immense concourse at the Philadelphia Academy of Music a few even- 
ings since (June, 1872), to see the Sioux Indians who are now on a visit 
to the eastward. It is said that there were actually more people present 
than at the convention which some days before had assembled in the 
same building for the renomination of President Grant. Ranged in a 
semi-circle upon the stage were Red Dog, and Little Wound, and Blue 
Horse, and Lone Wolf, and Red Leaf and eight minor chiefs, together 
with the Indian Commissioner, Mr. Geo. H. Stuart, and Governor 
Pollock. But conspicuous among them all was the burly figure of Red 
Cloud, who excited so much admiration upon a previous tour through 
our great cities by his native eloquence. After some intro- 
ductory remarks by the Governor and the Commissioner Red Cloud's 
Red Cloud was drawn out to speak. He came with much Question, 
reluctance and refused to move forward to the front of the 
stage. He evidently did not fancy being made a mere show of. He 
said: ' Red Cloud is here; you can all look at him; God made him as he 
made you. Red Cloud is glad to see you all here to-night, and to meet 
you face to face.' Then turning to address Mr. Stuart, 'Red Cloud 



XVI : I-/ ST. JOHN 439 



wants to ask you one question, and that is, who made 
us ? Did you ever see the Great Spirit, or His Son ? 
You have told Red Cloud that the Great Spirit came 
down from Heaven and dwelt among the white men, 
and that He went up again.' Here he stopped and 
pondered for a few moments. ' What did He go up 
again for? Red Cloud has come here and he wants to 
find out.' " — The Union Advocate. 



A. D. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April 6. 

JERUSALEM. 

IN AN UPPER 

ROOM. 

Jesus' 

Farewell 

Words at 

the Institu- 
tion of 

His Supper. 



Why it was Expedient for Jesus to Go Away. — * 
Because His going prepared the way for the coming 
of the Comforter. 

1. Because only away, glorified in heaven, would men see Jesus as 
He really was. Distance lends not only enchantment, but oftentimes 
reality to the view. One must stand at a distance to see a cloud or a 
mountain in its grandeur and glory. ' ' No one is a hero to his own 
servant." It would be forever difficult for men to see in a poor man 
like themselves, who ate and drank as they do, with no insignia of rank 
or power, — to see in such a one the Divine Messiah and Saviour of the 
world. But now enthroned, pictured as in Revelation 1 : 13-18, guid- 
ing His kingdom from on high, the doer of mighty spiritual works, 
always invisibly present, they can worship, adore and obey Him as 
King of kings and Lord of lords, without any of the evils and dangers 
which would flow from His possessing worldly magnificence and a 
royal court. 

2. In His bodily presence He could be with but few as His near and 
personal friends ; while now He is equally near to all, and present every- 
where. In the body He would be like an electric arc light or search 
light, exceedingly bright, but visible only to a limited sphere. Now 
He is like the sun which enlightens all men, and shines on the whole 
earth. 

3. In His bodily presence His disciples lived by sight, rather than by 
faith ; they could go to Him in every emergency, and consult Him as 
to every difficulty. They needed to be taught to live by faith, to be 
self-reliant and manly, to " gain all that strengthening of character 
which flows from working ourselves rather than having work done for 
us by another." And we see what a marvelous change was wrought in 
their character after the day of Pentecost. They were suddenly devel- 
oped from children into men. 

Many a boy in business with his father, or relying on his father's 
wealth, is carried along in life without much responsibility or hard 
work laid upon him, and thus does not develop his powers, and fails 
when the burden falls upon him alone. 



440 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVI : 8-1 1 



8. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, 
and of judgment : 

9. Of sin, because they believe not on me ; 

10. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more ; 

11. Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. 



So we have often noticed, that in driving in a country where we are 
unacquainted, if we follow another carriage, we do not learn the way ; 
but if we are compelled to decide at each turn of the road which way 
to go, we learn and remember the way. 

4. By going away, He was enabled to make atonement for sin on the 
cross, and to rise again from the dead ; without both of which His mis- 
sion must have failed. It was thus that He completed His work as the 
wisdom and power of God for the salvation of men. 



8. He Will Reprove (eXe'v^ei). — " 'EXfyx* * rendered reprove, has several 
phases of meaning. In earlier classical Greek it signifies to disgrace or 
put to shame. Thus Ulysses, having succeeded in the trial of the bow, 
says to Telemachus, ' the stranger who sits in thy halls disgraces (kXiyxei) 
thee not' (Odyssey, xxi: 424). Then, to cross-examine or question, for 
the purpose of convincing, convicting, or refuting ; to censure, accuse. 
So Herodotus : In his reply Alexander became confused, and diverged 
from the truth, whereon the slaves interposed, confuted his statements 
(tj\eyx.ov, cross-questioned and caught him in falsehood), and told the 
whole history of the crime (i: 115). The messenger in the 'Antigone' 
of Sophocles, describing the consternation of the watchmen at finding 
Polynices' body buried, says : Evil words were bandied among them, 
guard accusing (k\^\u>v) guard '" (260). Of arguments, to bring to the 
proof ; prove. ; prove by a chain of reasoning. 

' ' In the New Testament it is found in the sense of reprove (Luke hi: 19 ; 
1 Tim. v: 20, etc.). Convince of crime or fault (1 Cor. xiv: 24 ; Jas. 
ii:9). To bring to light or expose by conviction (Jas. in: 20 ; Eph. v: 11, 
13; John viii: 46 ; see on that passage). So of the exposure of false 
teachers, and their refutation (Tit. i: 9, 13 ; ii: 15). To test and expose 
ivith a view to correction, and so, nearly equivalent to chasten (Heb. 
xii: 5). The different meanings unite in the word convict. Conviction is 
the result of examination, testing, argument. The test exposes and 
demonstrates the error, and refutes it, thus convincing, convicting, and 
rebuking the subject of it. This conviction issues in chastening, by 
which the error is corrected and the erring one purified. If the con- 
viction is rejected, it carrier with it condemnation and punishment." — 
M. R. Vincent in Word Studies on John. 



XVI: 8-1 1 



ST. JOHN 



441 



Outside Power. — "While it may seem too mechan- 
ical to say with Prof. Drummond. — "Not more 
certain is it that it is something outside the thermom- 
eter that produces a change in the thermometer than 
it is something outside the soul^of man that produces 
a moral change upon him," yet it is certain that every 
one is profoundly affected by outside spiritual in- 
fluences ; and no one could be what he is without 
them. 

One may as well try to remove the snow from our 
fields, or the ice from our lakes, with shovels and 
carts, without the aid of the shining of the sun in 
spring, as to take away sin from the human heart, and cause the plants 
of righteousness to flourish therein, without the presence of the Holy 
Spirit. 



A. D. 30. 

Thtirsday Eve. 
April 6. 

JERUSALEM. 

IN AN UPPER 

ROOM. 

Jesus' 

Farewell 

Words at 

the Institu- 
tion of 

His Supper. 



The Bellows and the Fire. — " The Bellows one day gave a long- 
drawn sigh. ' What is the matter, friend Bellows, that you seem so 
sad?' said the Hearth. ' I have toiled to no purpose,' it answered, in a 
dejected tone. 'Haven't succeeded in kindling the fire, is it?' asked 
the Hearth. ' That is the cause,' replied the Bellows; ' after all my 
blowing there is no flame. In fact, the more I blow the darker it 
appears.' 'Perhaps,' said the Hearth, 'it requires something besides 
your blowing to quicken it. Let some one kindle a fire, and then your 
blowing will make it burn brighter.' Such are the words of the teacher 
without the kindling, regenerating fire of the Holy Spirit." — Bowden. 



Sin, Righteousness, Judgment. — Here is a three-fold cord not easily 
broken, wherewith to draw men to heaven. To see the evil of sin, to 
know what we ought to be, and to be attracted by the beauty of holi- 
ness, to realize the judgment to come, and the permanent and inevitable 
results of our living, — all these are mighty forces, like the attraction of 
gravitation, continually drawing men toward the better life. 



9. Convincing of Sin. — Men will not strive earnestly to escape from 
sin, unless they realize its evil and danger. They will not seek for a 
doctor or take bitter medicine, unless they realize that they are sick. 
Bunyan's Pilgrim realized what the City of Destruction was before he 
started out on his pilgrimage. A savage in a library needs to be con- 
victed of ignorance before he will try to learn to read. 



442 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVI: 8-1 1 

Lord Marmion's Experience. — Lord Marmion, having committed 
a disgraceful crime, though he had still a princely soul, everywhere 
found fuel to feed the fires of remorse, which burn most intensely in 
most noble minds. He calls for a song, and the song invokes curses on 
the very sin of which he is guilty. A friend's passing remark probes 
the sin -wound to the very core. In the midnight ride he is startled into 
terror by the phantom face, as it seems to him, of one long ago injured 
and supposed to be dead; and his companion, innocently commenting 
on his fear, tells him that — 

" Spotless in faith, in bosom bold, 
True son of chivalry should hold 

These midnight terrors vain ; 
For seldom have such spirits power 
To harm save in the evil hour 
When guilt we meditate within 
Or harbor unrepented sin." 

A word, a look from the reverend palmer, who was guiding his party, 
" full upon his conscience struck." 

" Thus oft it haps that, when within 
They shrink at sense of secret sin, 

A feather daunts the brave, 
A fool's wild speech confounds the wise, 
And proudest princes veil their eyes 

Before their meanest slave." 

" Lord, with what care hast thou begirt us round ! 
Parents first season us ; then schoolmasters 
Deliver us to laws; they send us bound 
To rules of reason, holy messengers, 

" Pulpits and Sundays; sorrow dogging sin; 
Afflictions sorted ; anguish of all sizes; 
Fine nets and stratagems to catch us in; 
Bibles laid open; millions of surprises; 

" Blessings beforehand ; ties of gratefulness; 
The sound of glory ringing in our ears; 
Without, our shame; within, our consciences; 

Angels and grace; eternal hopes and fears, — 
Yet all these fences, and their whole array, 
One cunning bosom-sin blows quite away." 

— George Herbert. 



XVI : 8-II ST. JOHN 443 



A. ». 29. 

Thursday Eve. 
April b. 

JERUSALEM 
IN AN UPPER 
ROOM. 
Jesus' 
Farewell 
Words at 
the Institu- 
tion of 
His Supper. 



Flaws in the Diamond.—" Here is a large, brilliant 
diamond. You look at the stone, and it pleases you 
by its wondrous whiteness and lustre. You admire 
it; you praise it very highly. You say. ' This stone 
is without fault of any kind — a most beautiful and 
precious gem.' The lapidary places in your hand a 
magnifying-glass of great power, and bids you look 
at the centre of the stone. You look. The lapidary 
inquires what you see, and you reply, ' Why, there 
is a black spot at its very centre ! I did not see 
that without the glass. To the naked eye the stone 
looked perfectly white — entirely without flaw or 
fault ; and yet now that I look at the stone through the glass, why, I 
wonder that I could not have seen so great a speck as that ! ' The 
lapidary says the naked eye cannot receive it, neither can it know it, 
because it is microscopically discerned. And nobody arises to contest 
the reasoning of the lapidary; no man ventures to say to him, ' Sir, you 
have introduced a most painful mystery into human thought and 
human inquiry.' Such people are rather glad that a medium has been 
supplied by which the most hidden fault can be brought to light." — 
Dr. Parker. 

Unconscious Sins. — I am told by a scientific man that a drop of ink 
put into a gallon of water could not be discovered by any chemical test, 
but a ray of light showed it immediately. One of the problems in the 
use of copper is a similar fact. There are elements in it not within the 
power of chemical analysis to detect, which yet affect its working 
power. During the earlier discussions on evolution, when many experi- 
ments were being made to prove spontaneous generation, and philoso- 
phers thought that they had succeeded, because they believed they had 
been able to exclude all germs, Prof. Tyndall sent his ray of light 
through the air thus supposed to be pure, and the light showed germs 
which no other test had discovered. 



A room seems perfectly free from dust till a ray of light enters and 
discovers thousands of particles floating in the air. 



The Heart of Fire Under Gorgeous Robes. — The Legends of the 
East describes Solomon the Magnificent as having a heart of fire under 
his gorgeous robes. " He exclaims, ' An unrelenting fire preys on my 
heart.' The caliph was ready to sink with terror when he heard the 
groans of Solomon. Having uttered this exclamation, Solomon raised 



444 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVI: 8-1 1 

his hands towards heaven, in token of supplication, and the caliph dis- 
cerned through his bosom, which was transparent as crystal, his heart 
enveloped in flames." — Farrar. 



For no men or women that live to-day, 
Be they as good or as bad as they may, 

Ever would dare to leave 
In faintest pencil or boldest ink, 

All they truly and really think, 

What they have said, and what they have done, 
What they have lived, and what they have felt, 

Under the stars or under the sun." 



A friend used sometimes to take his little boy when naughty to a 
looking-glass, and hold him up before it, that he might see his features 
distorted by crying or by passion. 



Mad With a Mirror. — ' • Some years ago there was a missionary bazaar 
held in a Christian city in aid of the African missions. When the bazaar 
was finished, it was found that a number of articles were left unsold. 
Some of them, it was thought, would be very handy for the mission, so 
it was decided to send the lot out to Africa. Among other things was 
a box of little hand-mirrors, that had been given by a merchant. Look- 
ing-glasses seemed queer things to send to a foreign mission ; however, 
they were sent, and became the most useful article there. The mirrors 
took the people's fancy, and their fame was carried far beyond the 
station. The knowledge of this wonderful thing came to a princess of a 
distant powerful tribe. She had never beheld her dusky countenance, 
except as a double silhouette in a placid lake, and she longed to behold 
all her charms, for, being a princess, she was told by everybody that she 
was most beautiful ; whereas, she was one of the plainest women in the 
whole tribe. A messenger was dispatched for one of the mirrors, which 
he procured and at once returned to his mistress. When she got pos- 
session of it she did not look into it at once, but took herself off to her 
own place, that she might have a good look at her beauty. When she 
beheld herself as she was, with one blow of her royal hand she dashed 
the glass to pieces. She ordered the missionaries off her territory, and 
published an edict forbidding looking-glasses to be brought into the 
country. 

Are there not many in other lands who are in a similar condition with 
regard to their souls ! When they are brought face to face with God's 
looking-glass, with the hideousness of their sin, and they cannot deny 



XVI : 8-1 1 ST. JOHN 445 



the fact, they blame the mirror, seek to avoid it, and 
destroy it that they may lay the flattering falsehood to 
themselves that they are not so ugly as they appear." 



The Compass. — 

" A thing so fragile that one feather's weight 
Might break its poise or turn the point aside, 
The mightiest vessel, with her tons of freight, 
O'er pathless seas from port to port will 
guide. 



A. ». 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April 6. 

JERUSALEM. 

IX AN UPPER 

ROOM. 

Jesus' 

Farewell 

Words at 

the Institu- 
tion of 

His Supper. 



What wonder, then, if lodged within the breast, 
Some simple, yet unwavering faith may lie 

To guide the laden soul to ports of rest 
And, like the compass, point it to the sky ? " 

— John Troland. 



Brahmin and Microscope. — " An English naturalist residing in India 
tells a good story of a Brahmin and a microscope. Mr. J. had a fine 
instrument sent from England, and one day, soon after receiving it, he 
was examining some minute objects when a Brahmin called. The 
Indian eyed the microscope curiously, and Mr. J., thinking to amuse 
and interest his visitor, began to show him some of the wonders 
revealed by that instrument. 

" Among other things, he showed him a drop of his own blood. His 
eyes grew big with something akin to terror when he looked into the 
tube and saw the countless little bodies called corpuscles. But the cli- 
max was reached when he saw a specimen of water which had been 
taken from one of the tanks where he and the people obtained their 
drinking-water. 

"He looked, and looked again. He examined the pitcher minutely. 
Then he went himself and brought a fresh quantity of water from the 
tank. Alas ! the result was the same ; a drop of the fluid seemed 
swarming with myriads of living and rapidly-moving organisms. He 
put a drop in his hand, and examined it critically with his naked eye. 
It appeared all right. Then he looked at the microscope suspiciously, 
and said, with emphasis : 

" 'He witch!' 

" The next day he sought to buy " the little witch ; " and to get rid of 
his importunity, the naturalist named a sum so large that he supposed 
the price would settle the matter. But the Brahmin drew out a bag of 
gold and paid the price. 

' ' To my amazement, he seized it and began banging it upon the stone 



446 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVI: 8-1 1 

floor. When he desisted, the tube was wrenched and bent out of shape, 
and the valuable lenses were shattered to fragments. 

" ' What do you mean ? ' I gasped. 

" ' He leetle deevil ! ' the Brahmin replied, calmly. ' He tell no more 
lies!'" — Youth's Companion. 



Library. — Joseph Cook's Monday Lectures, Conscience. Lecky's 
History of European Morals. Wendell Phillips' Lectures, pp. 277 and 
296 Dr. Gordon's How Christ Came to Church, p. 105. 



10. Convicting of Righteousness, or rather concerning (wcpl) right- 
eousness. Conviction of sin is only preparatory to conviction of 
righteousness, in the progress of a soul. A conviction of righteousness is 
necessary to a deep conviction of sin. 

The author of " Mornings with the Jesuits," had a friend who saw the 
conversion of a whole tribe of Indians by the Jesuits in America. They 
were all marched down to the river, and the priest sprinkled water on 
each one in due form, and then hung a little cross by a string around 
the neck of each, and, telling them they were Christians, 
left them. For two years the missionary was absent. He Jesuits 
then returned and called them to confession, and was and the 
surprised to learn that not one of them had any sins to Indians. 
confess, for not one, in his own opinion, had committed a 
single sin. Their standard was so low that they had lived up to it. 
Their need was to see something higher and better, so that they should 
see how far short they had come. The great difficulty with many, in 
many things besides religion, is that they have no high ideal, and hence 
no consciousness of their deficiencies. But this is especially true in 
morals. 



Testing the Rapidity of Motion. — The boy in a boat floating on the 
stream, and looking at the water and not at the shore, imagines the 
stream is quiet, and does not flow fast. But as soon as he looks at a 
fixed point on the shore, and begins to row against the stream, he learns 
how rapidly it runs. So when one really tries to keep the law in the 
strictness of its spirit, he begins to feel his weakness and sin, where 
before he felt himself almost good enough. A like illustration can be 
drawn from one on an express train: looking at the car and our com- 
panions, we seem to be almost standing still. A fixed point near by 
will convict us of motion. So we on the surface of the earth are mov- 
ing a thousand miles an hour without perceiving the motion. 



XVI : 8-n ST. JOHN 447 



Isaiah's Vision.— In Isaiah vi. is reported the effect 
of a vision of God upon the prophet. His conviction 
of sin arose (1) from the contrast of his own soul with 
the thrice holy King. Comparing himself with others 
around him, he might feel that he was 
Conviction quite good. His light shone brightly 
of Sin by among other smoky lamps. But when he 
Contrast, placed it in the light of the sun, it was 
darkness rather than light. He now had 
visions of goodness inconceivable before. He never 
even dreamed of such possibilities of excellence. (2) ' t ' — * 

He felt the contrast between himself and the singing 
seraphim. Even they veiled their faces before the King, how much 
more should he! (3) The light shone through him, and revealed his own 
heart, with all its imperfect motives and thoughts. 



A. D. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 

April 6. 
JERUSALEM. 
IN AN UPPER 
ROOM. 
Jesus' 
Farewell 
Words at 
tlie Institu- 
tion of 
His Supper. 



Power of Vision of Righteousness. — But much more than this is 
needed. Every one who would be very good, must have a vision, an 
ideal of what the beauty of holiness is, must see his possibilities, and 
the desirability of seeking thein. I can imagine how a seedling of a 
rose, or a bulb of a lily would seek with infinite earnestness to grow, if 
it once had a vision of the rose or the lily it may become. 



Reference. — See "Transformations" under iii : 3-5. 

Our Higher Experiences, our transfiguration moments, our revival 
seasons, all convince us of righteousness, enlarge our ideals, uplift our 
daily lives. The study of Christ's life and character, the seeing Him as 
He is helps to change us into the image of Christ. 



" Master, it is good to be 
Entranced, en wrapt, alone with thee ; 
Till we, too, change from grace to grace, 
Gazing on that transfigured face." 

—A. P. Stanley. 

Library. — Plato's Republic, the story of Gyges' Ring as a test of 
righteousness. 

11. Convincing of Judgment. — " Suppose a messenger from God 
should take us by the hand and lead us up to the steps of a great build- 



448 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVI: 8-1 1 

ing, and as we entered the porch it should begin to grow dark. Suppose 
that he should then open a door into a very large hall, which he called 
a picture gallery. As we enter it, we find it dark as night ; but as the 
angel touches a spring, the light flashes in and fills the room. We now 
see that the walls are hung with pictures — so many and so large that 
they cover all the walls. On these are painted all the sins that we have 
ever committed. On one picture are painted all the bad words that we 
have ever spoken ; on another all the crimes and jealousies we have 
ever felt ; on another all the covetings of our hearts, all the wrong bar- 
gains we have ever made, all the unkindness to our parents and friends 
of which we have ever been guilty, all our prayerless mornings and 
evenings, all our neglect of God's Word, all our ingratitude towards our 
Heavenly Father and our hard feelings towards Him, all our abuse of 
the Sabbath and the means of grace, all our neglect of the Saviour and 
our grieving away the Holy Spirit. What pictures would our sins — 
open sins, secret sins, heart sins, and life-long sins — make! Who 
would dare look at them ? What a terrible hall that would be ! It would 
truly be a ' judgment hall ; ' it would make us tremble." — Rev. John 
Todd, D. D. 

" Measuring Day " is an excellent story by Hester Wolcott in the New 
York Observer, quoted in Mission Studies for November, 1889. A young 
girl mingled in her dreams a sermon on ' growing unto the stature of a 
perfect man ' with the story of King Frederick of Prussia, each one of 
whose famous guardsmen must come up to a certain stature. In her 
dream she came to measuring day, when every person's growth in grace 
must be measured. An angel stood with a tall golden rod fastened in 
the ground by his side. "Over it on a golden scroll were the words, 

' THE MEASURE OF TEE STATURE OF THE PERFECT MAN.' The angel held 

in his hand a large book into which he wrote the measurements, as the 
people came up on the calling of their names. The instant each one 
touched the golden measure a most wonderful thing happened. No one 
could escape the terrible accuracy of that strange rod. Each one shrank 
or increased to his true dimensions — his spiritual dimensions, as I soon 
learned — for it was an index of the soul's growth which was shown in 
this mysterious and miraculous way, so that even we could see with 
our eyes what otherwise the angel alone could have perceived." — Hes- 
ter Wolcott. 

La Conscience. — " Every one knows Victor Hugo's beautiful poem, 
La Conscience, the story of Cain fleeing away before the Eye of God. 
He walks thirty days and thirty nights, until he reaches the shores of 
the ocean. ' Let us stop here,' says he. But as he sits down his face 



XVI :8-n ST. JOHN 449 



turns pale; he has seen 'in the mournful skies the •} 
Eye at the same place.' His sons, full of awe, try to 
erect barriers between him and the Eye : a tent, then 
a wall of iron, then a tower, and a city ; but all is 
vain. ' I see the Eye still,' cries the unhappy man. 
At last they dig a tomb ; the father is put into it. 
But 

" 'Though overhead they closed the awful vault, 
The Eye was in the tomb, and looked on Cain.'" 
— Rev. Reuben Saillens, D. D. 



A.D. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April b. 

JERUSALEM. 

IN AN UPPER 

ROOM. 

Jesus' 

Farewell 

Words at 

the Institu- 
tion of 

HisSupper. 



Facing the Mirror. — "In one of the ancient court-rooms of Europe 
there was actually fixed a large mirror near the prisoners' dock, so that 
each arraigned culprit might look upon his own image as he sat there 
on trial as a felon. Some of you who are now procrastinating your 
repentance have seen that picture for years, and it has no alarm to you. 
But the end is coming. Oh ! what is it that you are going to think or 
to say, 

" ' When the sun grows cold, and the stars are old, 
And the leaves of the judgment-book unfold?'" 

— Rev. C. S. Robinson, LL. D. 



The Avenger may be illustrated by the workings of conscience in 
Judas; in Shakespeare's Macbeth; and in Richard III., where the 
ghosts of those he had murdered successively rise up in judgment 
against him, crying, "Let me sit heavy on thy soul to-morrow;" in 
the old G reek stories of Prometheus with the gnawing vulture, and of 
the Furies, etc. 



The Picture Gallery. — "A good man dreamed he had died and 
had gone up to the gates of heaven. Before admission, he was, how- 
ever, bidden to tarry awhile in the picture-room. He looked from 
scene to scene upon the canvas there, and all appeared familiar to him. 
At last he recognized them as from his own life, and in each presenta- 
tion he was in peril of some kind, but angels, sent of God, were guard- 
ing or directing him. The disclosure thus made put all his life into a 
new light." — S. S. Times. 



All Things Visible to God. — " Gold-fish swimming about in a glass 

bowl, or bees in a glass beehive, may as easily screen themselves from 

observation by the bystanders, as our inward thoughts and sins can 

hide themselves from the sight of God. In the General Post Office 

29 



450 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVI: 8-1 1 

sorting-room there is a hole in the wall, darkened by a grating, through 
which a frequent watch is kept upon the letter-sorters. Notwithstand- 
ing this, deceit often goes undetected by man, but never undetected by 
the eye of God."— Biblical Museum. 

" Howe'er we trust to mortal things, 
Each hath its pair of folded wings ; 
Tho' long their terrors rest unspread, 

" Their fatal plumes are never shed ; 
At last, at last, they stretch in flight, 
And blot the day and blast the night ! " 

— O. W. Holmes. 



The Survival of Memory. — Many of us have known persons who 
have had an experience similar to that so beautifully described by 
DeQuincey, of a lady who in her youth was nearly drowned, " having 
descended within the abyss of death, and looked into its secrets as far 
perhaps as ever human eye can have looked that had permission to 
return. At a certain stage of this descent a blow seemed to strike her ; 
phosphoric radiance sprang forth from her eyeballs ; and immediately 
a mighty theatre expanded in her brain. In a moment, in the twink- 
ling of an eye, every act, every design of her past life lived again, 
arraying themselves not as a succession, but as parts of a coexistence." 



Dr. O. W. Holmes' Experience in Drowning. — 

Boston, March 15, 1880. 

My Dear Miss Isabella.— Here is one little incident of my life 
which I have never told in print : 

When I was a little boy I got upon a raft one day — a few boards laid 
together — which floated about in a pond — a very small pond, but 
rather bigger round than a dinner-table. It was big enough, anyhow, 
to drown a little boy, and came pretty near doing it ; for while I was 
stooping over the edge of the raft, I slipped and went souse into the 
water. 

I remember a great sound in my ears — "gurgle, gurgle," I said it 
was, when they asked me about it — and a desperate struggle, feeling 
that I was going to be drowned, just as little Sam Childs had been ; 
and then all at once my whole past life seemed to flash before me as a 
train of cars going a thousand miles an hour, if such a speed were pos- 
sible, would pass in one long, crowded streak before the eyes of a person 
standing by the railroad. 



XVI: 8-1 1 ST. JOHN 451 

I had never heard that this was a common experi- 
ence with persons who are drowning, but I have since 
heard of many cases where the same flash of their 
past lives has come before drowning people who have 
been rescued and have told about it. 

Very truly yours, 

Oliver Wendell Holmes. 



(A letter to a school girl, which she afterward with 
his permission contributed to the St. Nicholas.) 



A. ». 30. 

Thursday Eve. 

April 6. 
JERUSALEM. 
IN AN UPPER 
ROOM. 
Jesus' 
Farewell 
Words at 
tlie Institu- 
tion of 
His Supper. 



The Eternal Record. — " Could the young but realize how soon they 
will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more 
heed to their conduct while in the plastic state. We are spinning our 
own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke 
of virtue or of vice leaves its never so little scar. The drunken Rip Van 
Winkle, in Jefferson's play, excuses himself for every fresh dereliction 
by saying, ' I won't count this time."' Well, he may not count it and a 
kind heaven may not count it, but it is being counted none the less. 
Down among his nerve cells and fibres the molecules are counting it, 
registering and storing it up, to be used against him when the next 
temptation comes. Nothing we ever do is, in strict scientific literal- 
ness, wiped out. Of course, this has its good side as well as its bad one. 
As we become permanent drunkards by so many separate drinks, so we 
become saints in the moral and authorities and experts in the practical 
and scientific spheres by so many separate acts and hours of work." — 
Prof. William James, of Harvard, in his Text-book on Psychology. 



I Sat Alone With My Conscience. — 

" I sat alone with my conscience 

In a place where time had ceased, 
And we talked of my former living 

In the land where the years increased. 
The ghosts of forgotten actions 
Came floating before my sight, 

" And things that I thought were dead things 
Were alive with a terrible might ; 

The vision of all my past life 
Was an awful tiling to face, 

Alone with my conscience sitting 
In that silently solemn place. 



452 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVI : 12-14 

12. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. 

13. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all 
truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall 
he speak : and he will shew you things to come. 

14. He shall glorify me ; for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. 

" And now alone with my conscience, 

In the place where the years increase, 
I try to recall that future 

In the land where time will cease, 
And I know of the future judgment, 

How dreadful soe'er it be, 
To sit alone with my conscience 

Will be judgment enough for me." 



Library. — Lowell's Poems, " Michael the Weigher." The main idea 
in the little book, The 'Stars and the Earth, is a good illustration of 
how things may be revealed on the judgment day. 



13. He Will Guide You into All Truth. — " In a Greek miniature of 
the tenth century, the Holy Spirit, as a dove, is seen hovering over 
King David, who displays the prayer : Give the king thy judgments, O 
God, and thy righteousness to the king's son, while there stand on 
either side of him the figures of Wisdom and Prophecy." He reveals 
to men the course they ought to take. He influences rulers and nations, 
who themselves do not recognize His power. The power of God's people 
is not in wealth or numbers or forms or beautiful buildings or outward 
attractions. But God will use these things as instruments of His spirit. 
If God can use our ignorance, how much more our knowledge. If He 
can use our folly, how much more our wisdom ; if our poverty, how 
much more our wealth. If He can cause the sins and oppositions and 
even the wrath of men to praise him, how much more the virtues 
the willing, loving service of His disciples. The truth of this verse 
was first seen in its glory at the day of Pentecost ; but the whole his^ 
tory of the church is an example and illustration of it. 



The Tree of Knowledge. — How great are the " longings and yearn- 
ings under the shade of that symbolic tree. This is the method of 
Providence and the Spirit in all our culture. The alphabet abides with 
us; and Newton, Bacon. Milton, Shakespeare, are outgrowths of the 
primer. And in our best discipline we often note that, while knowl- 
edge gains by accessions of new ideas, the elaboration of the contents 



XVI: 15-24 ST. JOHN 453 

* * 



A. B. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April 6. 

JERUSALEM. 

IN AN UPPER 

ROOM. 

Jesus' 

Farewell 

Words at 

the Institu- 
tion of 

His Supper. 



1"). All things that the Father hatb are mine; therefore said 
I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. 

16. A little while, and ye shall not see me ; and again, a little 
while, and ye shall see me, because 1 go to the Father. 

17. Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What 
is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see 
me : and again, a little while, and ye shall see me : and, Be- 
cause I go to the Father? 

18. They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little 
while? we cannot tell what he saith. 

19. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and 
said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves of that I said, 

A little while, and ye shall not see me : and again, a little while, and ye shall see 
me? 

20. Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the 
world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into 
joy. 

21. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but 
as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for 
joy that a man is born into the world. 

22. And ye now therefore have sorrow : but I will see you again, and your heart 
shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. 

23. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 

24. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that 
your joy may be full. 

couched in old truths gives us the profoundest training. The good 
farmer has two vast reservoirs of moisture, — the firmament above, and 
that other storehouse of mercy in the earth beneath. If, in times of 
drouth, when the sky is resting from gathering the vapors and con- 
densing them in clouds, he has attended to his subsoiling, he has found 
a substitute for the winds and the sea. Christ laid much stress on the 
specific development of the spiritual mind as proceeding from germs 
located in the memory. ' He shall teach you all things,' and ' bring all 
things to your remembrance.' The promised Paraclete was to be a 
divine remembrancer. He addressed Nathaniel's memory, and so pre- 
pared him for the greater things, — which are greater, not only in them- 
selves, but because they carry the past into the future." — Prof, A. A. 
Lipscomb, LL. D. 



Guidance of the Spirit of God. — " Unsanctified men cannot read 
the Bible to profit. If you bring me a basketful of minerals, and I look 
at them, I know that one has gold if I see little points of yellow gold, 
but I shall not know many things. But let a metallurgist look at it, 



454 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVI : 25-33 



25. These things have 1 spoken unto you in proverbs : but the time cometh, when 
I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the 
Father. 

26. At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will 
pray the Father for you : 

27. For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have 
believed that I came out from God. 

28. 1 came forth from the Father, and am come into the world : again I leave the 
world, and go to the Father. 

29. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no 
proverb. 

30. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man 
should ask thee : by this we believe that thou earnest forth from God. 

31. Jesus auswered them, Do ye now believe? 

32. Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every 
man to his ovyn, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the 
Father is with me. 

33. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In 
the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the 
world. 

and he will recognize not only gold, but silver, lead, iron. Now take 
the Word of God, that is filled with precious stones, and let one 
instructed in spiritual insight go through it and he will discover 
all these treasures ; while if you let a man uninstructed in spiritual 
insight go through it he will discover those things that are outside and 
apparent, but those things that make God and man friends, and that 
have to do with the immortality of the soul in heaven, escape his notice. 
No man can know these things unless the Spirit of God has taught him 
to discern them. ' He will guide you into all truth.'" — Beecher. 



22. Sorrow, Xvthiv. — This word is general in meaning, expressing 
every species of pain, of body or of soul. 



Have Sorrow, \vttt\v €X €Te « — " This form of expression occurs fre- 
quently in the New Testament, to denote the possession or experience 
of virtues, sensations, desires, emotions, intellectual or spiritual facul- 
ties, faults, or defects. It is stronger than the verb which expresses any 
one of these. For instance, to have faith is stronger than to believe ; to 
have life, than the act of living. It expresses a distinct, personal reali- 
zation of the virtue or fault or sentiment in question. Hence, to have 
sorrow is more than to be sorrowful." — M. R. Vincent. 



XVI: 25-33 



ST. JOHN 



455 



23. The Power Room of Prayer. — " The quietest 
room in a Lancashire cotton mill is the engine room. 
It is significantly called ' The Power Room ' of the 
mill. But let the engine be neglected, let countless 
looms be added without proportional increase of 
power, and the mill breaks down. We have been 
neglecting our quietest room, our power room; we 
have been adding to the strain without multiplying 
the force, and the effects are seen in weariness, joy- 
lessness, and ineffectiveness. We cannot minimize 
our activities ; but we must sustain them with those 
more adequate supplies of grace that come in answer 
to common prayer." — The Workmen's Messenger. 



A. D. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 

April 6. 
JERUSALEM. 
IN AN UPPER 
ROOM. 
Jesus' 
Farewell 
Words at 
the Institu- 
tion of 
His Supper. 



33. That Ye Might Have Peace. — " I remember once walking in 
the long galleries of the Vatican, on the one side of which there are 
Christian inscriptions from the Catacombs, and on the other heathen 
inscriptions from the tombs. One side is all dreary and hopeless, one 
long sigh echoing along the line of white marbles — "Farewell, fare- 
well, forever farewell.' On the other side, ' In Christ, in peace, in 
hope.' That is the witness that we have to lay to our hearts." — Alex. 
Maclaren, D. D. 



Two Kinds of Peace. — "There are two states in which man expe- 
riences painlessness, — at the top, and at the foot, of the hill. In per- 
fect health we have no pain ; in perfect disease we have no pain. In 
the one case, our members are so full of vigor that they are unconscious 
of their own life ; in the other, they are so mortified that all sensation 
has ceased. Pain is never the lowest thing ; it is always in the middle 
road between the highest and the lowest. It is that which leads from 
the one to the other. It is the protest of to-day against yesterday on 
its way to to-morrow. That is its function ; that is its power. 

" And pain is, so far as I know, the only protest in the human consti- 
tution against something which is wrong. It is the one protestant 
movement in the body-politic of man's organism, the only thing which 
raises its voice against existing abuses. Pain is a signal, — in the moral 
world, the only signal. It indicates danger on the line. Without it 
the danger would be equally great, but not equally remedial. It is the 
declaration that our health is bad, or, at the least, that something i s 
required to perfect our constitution. Hunger is the protest of the physi- 
cal nature against further abstinence ; lassitude is the protest of the 
mental nature against further work. Always and everywhere pain is 



456 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVI : 2$~33 

the Martin Luther of the organic framework ; it placards the walla of 
the city with the announcement that there is something wrong. 

" Now, when this function exists in the moral nature, we call it by a 
particular name — conscience. Conscience is simply the hunger of the 
moral nature. In itself it indicates convalescence. It reveals the tur- 
pitude of a man's state, but it does not create it. The revelation implies 
a higher altitude. Sin cannot reveal sin any more than night can 
reveal night. Pain is a mirror lit from above. The forms projected on 
its surface are impure forms, but the light by which we see them is 
God's light. Of all present things, pain is that which has the most 
optimistic aspect; just because it is a protest, it is a prophecy. It is 
the function of conscience to tell the mind what it is the function of 
headache to tell the body — that disease is not a normal thing, and 
therefore not a permanent thing. As long as disease lasts, physical or 
mental, it is desirable that pain should last. Disease without pain 
is disease without protest — hurrying down a steep place into the sea. 
It is destruction unf elt, and therefore unopposed ; it is peace where there 
is no peace. That is why, in the present state of dilapidation, Christi- 
anity has not only preserved, but polished the mirror of pain." — Geo. 
Matheson, D. D. 



Reference. — See on xiv. 27. 

In the World, Tribulation; but Be op Good Cheer. — "We 
remember a parable in which a preacher says, ' Look at this flute; it 
was a piece of wood; what has made it a flute? The rifts, the holes in 
it.' What life is there through which affliction does not make some 
rift? All went well till then; but through that rift in the life came 
thought and feeling. 'So,' said the preacher, ' I listened 
to a flute one day complaining that it was spoiled by having The Rifted 
a number of holes bored in it. " Once," it said, " I was a Flute, 
piece of wood, very beautiful to look upon; now I am 
spoiled by all these rifts and holes; " and it said all this mournfully and 
musically. ' O thou foolish flute,' I said, ' without these rifts and holes 
thou wouldst only be a mere stick, a bit of mere hard, black ebony, 
soon to be thrown away. Those rifts and holes have been the making 
of thee; they have made thee into a flute; they are thy life, thy char- 
acter, thy music and melody, and thou wilt not now be cast aside with 
contempt, but touched by even the fingers of future generations.' "— 
Sunday at Home. 

Seven Fears Changed to Joys. — In the "Light of Asia," King 
Suddhodana dreamed troublous dreams, and seven great and terrible 
fears came before him in vision. The flag of Indra was rent by a rush- 



XVI: 25-33 st. john 457 



ing wind, ten huge elephants shook the earth with 4* — 
their tread, a mighty drum pealed like a thunder- 
storm ; his son sat on a tower scattering gems, as if it 
rained jacinths and rubies, and all the world seized 
on these treasures. Every one was to the king a 
great fear. But a wise counselor showed him that 
every one of his fears was in reality a great joy. The 
rent flag was but the beginning of the new. The ten 
elephants were the ten great gifts of wisdom ; the tower 
was the growing of the true religion, and the gems 
were the truths his son would give to the world ; and 
the drum was the thunder of the preached word. So it 
is with men's fears for the progress of the Gospel. Every fear is in reality 
the note of a great joy. Take one instance, the fear of science. Not 
only is science the very handmaid of religion, but it was stated that of 
the two thousand members of the great International Association for 
the Advancement of Science, in this country, seven-eighths are con- 
nected in some way with Christian churches. 



A. ». 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April 6. 

JERUSALEM. 
IN AN UPPER 
ROOM. 
Jesus' 
Farewell 
Words at 
the Institu- 
tion of 
HisSupper. 



The Wind-Flo wer. — " It is said that 'there is a flower in South 
America which is visible only when the wind blows. The shrub 
belongs to the cactus family, and the stem is covered with warty-look- 
ing lumps in calm weather. These lumps, however, need but a slight 
breeze to make them unfold large flowers of a creamy white, which 
close and appear as dead when the wind subsides.' Fit emblem this is 
of many Christians who in ordinary times exhibit but little of active 
grace, and are supposed to be unsympathetic and indifferent, but when 
reverses and affliction come to themselves or others, when there is a call 
for what they can do or give, open out into the loveliness of charity, 
and minister joy to all about them by their grace." — Anon. 



A Box of Wings. — " Once a soldier was about to start out on a long 
and very difficult journey for a great king, and the king, who was also 
a very wise man, gave him to help him on the way a wonderful box. 
This box, as the king showed him, contained a large number of little 
wings, each of them labeled ; and whenever the soldier on his journey 
came to any danger that corresponded to the label on any of the wings, 
he had only to fasten the right set on his shoulders, and at once they 
would begin to fly, and would lift him above the trouble, whatever it 
might be, and put him down in a safe place. 

"One of these pairs of wings was marked ' For Robbers,' and the 
soldier clapped them on when he was attacked in a dark woods by some 
bandits. At once he found himself sailing above the trees, far out of 



45^ SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVI : 25-33 

their reach. One of them was marked, ' For a Pit,' and the soldier, when 
he chanced to fall into a deep well through the treachery of his guide, 
had no difficulty, with the help of the marvelous wings, in getting out 
again. One of them was marked • For Darkness,' and the soldier, when 
he lost his way in a dark forest, was glad to try all the wings till he 
found this set, which at once carried him out to the light again. And 
so by the aid of these wonderful wings the soldier came safely to his 
journey's end, and accomplished the errand of the great king. 

" Now this story is true of each one of us. For the great king is God, 
and the wonderful box is the Bible, and the wings are God's promises to 
us. There is a promise in this blessed book for every trouble you may 
chance to meet along the journey of life. There is a promise for sick- 
ness, and one for pain, and one for worry, and another for danger, and 
another for loneliness, and others for fear and failure and weariness and 
death. And all you have to do is to take these promises and believe 
them, and they will at once lift you, like wings, high above all your 
troubles, into peace and joy and sunshine again." — Prof. Amos R. Wells. 



The Burden of Wings. — " Did you ever hear the story of how the 
birds received their wings ? It is said that the little birds were first 
created without wings. They hopped about and seemed very happy, 
but could not fly. One day God appeared and said to the birds : ' You 
are beautiful, and you hop beautifully, and you sing very sweetly, but 
you cannot fly. If you will only let me help, I will put about your body 
wings.' The birds said, 'No, they would tie us down to earth, and be 
so heavy that we never could hop about.' 

"Sometimes when God comes down to us, and says, ' Child, you are 
beautiful, and you sing sweetly, but you cannot fly ; let me put the 
wings on,' we begin to say, ' O Lord, no, we could not stand the burden, 
the pain and trouble.' May God put these wings upon us ! It may be 
through sorrow ; it may be through affliction ; it may be by trial. And 
we may look at the wings and say, ' O Lord, not these, not these.' So 
we deprive ourselves of wings. 

" The little birds at first did not want the little weights, but after 
much persuasion they began to put on the wings. Then immediately 
they found that instead of being the things that would tie them to earth, 
they were the things which helped them towards heaven. So when 
God comes down by these afflictions and trials, He is only putting upon 
us the wings which shall lift us up to heaven." — Mrs. J. S. Norvell, in 
Northfield Echoes, 1897, vol. 3. 

Three Ways of Overcoming Difficulties.— "A friend once illus- 
trated to me the difference between three of her friends in the following 



XVI : 25-33 ST. JOHN 4$9 



way. She said if they should all three come to a spirit- 
ual mountain which had to be crossed, the first one 
would tunnel through it with hard and wearisome 
labor ; the second would meander around it in an in- 
definite fashion, hardly knowing where she was going, 
and yet, because her aim was right, getting around it 
at last ; but the third, she said, would just flap her 
wings and fly right over. I think we must all know 
something of these different ways of locomotion, and 
I trust, if any of us in time past have tried to tunnel 
our way through the mountains that have stood across 
our pathway, or have been meandering around them, 
that we may from henceforth resolve to spread our wings, and mount 
up into the clear atmosphere of God's presence, where it will be easy to 
overcome, or come over, the highest mountain of them all." — TJie Secret 
of a Happy Life. 



A. D. 30. 

Thiers day Eve. 

April b. 
JERUSALEM. 
IN AN UPPER 
ROOM. 
Jesus' 
Farewell 
Words at 
tlie Institu- 
tion of 
His Supper. 



" Milton sits musing in the porch, 

The bright blue sky above him, 
But cannot see the light of heaven, 

Or smiles of those who love him ; 
But though the utter darkness hides 

The earthly from his vision, 
He sees the bowers of Paradise 

And splendors of the Elysian ; 
He learns from angels at his side 

Creation's awful story, 
And looks upon them face to face, 

Undazzled by their glory, 

" Beethoven, Music's great High Priest, 

Whose heaven-born fancies capture 
The tangled skeins of Harmony 

And weave them into rapture, 
Hears not the voice of human kind 

Nor sound of life and motion ; 
Nor tempests on the echoing hills 

Nor moan of restless ocean — 
And yet in silence of his mind 

Can hear the throb and thunder 
Of jubilant hymns and solemn chants, 

And lays of Love and Wonder ! 

" Thus relentless Fate may close 
The gateways of our senses ; 



460 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVI : 25—33 

Immortal Spirit overleaps 

Their barriers and defenses, 
And with celestial recompense 

For harm and loss diurnal 
Yields greater joys than flesh affords 

In foretastes of the eternal ! 
To blind old Milton's rayless orbs 

A light divine is given, 
And deaf Beethoven hears the hymns 

And harmonies of heaven." — Charles Mackay. 



Reward of Sufferings. — " Herod Agrippa was once thrown into a 
loathsome dungeon by Tiberius for wishing that his friend, Caligula, 
might soon ascend the imperial throne. But the very day Caligula 
became Emperor, Agrippa was released. Caligula gave him purple for 
his rags, tetrarchies for his narrow cell, and carefully weighing the 
gyves that fettered him, for every link of iron bestowed on him one of 
gold. Think you that day Agrippa wished his handcuffs and his leg- 
locks had been lighter ? Jesus will not forget those who have suffered 
for His cause. He will reward great tribulation with greater glory . " — 
The Dictionary of Religious Anecdote. 



Growth Under Pressure. — " The crest of John Spreull was a palm 
tree, with two weights hanging on each side of it from its fronds, and 
yet maintaining, in spite of this heavy down-dragging force, its upright 
position, carrying its graceful crown of foliage up into the serene air. 
The weights in the case of this sufferer for righteousness' sake were 
visible. His cross of imprisonment and martyrdom was apparent to 
every one. And very many of the weights that press down the Chris- 
tian life are equally visible and palpable. But as the palm tree is pressed 
on every side by the viewless air, as it is exposed to the resistance of 
forces which the eye cannot see nor the hand feel, so the heaviest 
weights which drag down the Christian life are often invisible; Its 
crosses cannot be displayed. No stranger can intermeddle with its sor- 
rows. Many of its troubles are of a spiritual nature. It has ever to do 
an uphill work. It has to grow against the gravitation of sin. It has 
to exert itself against the weariness of the flesh and the heaviness of 
the soul. It has to push up like Sisyphus the stone of endeavor to the 
top of the hill, notwithstanding that it rolls down again and again." — 
Hugh Macmillan, I). D. 



The little worries which we meet each day, 
May lie as stumbling blocks across our way ; 
Or we may make them stepping-stones to be 
Of Grace, O Christ, to thee." 



XVII : 1-5 ST. JOHN 461 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE LORD'S PRAYER FOR HIS DISCIPLES. 



1. These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eves to heaven 
and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy 
Son also may glorify thee j 

2. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should 
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. 

3. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only 
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent. 

4. I have glorified thee on the earth : I have finished the 
work which thou gavest me to do. 

5. And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self 
with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. 4 



A. D. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 

April 6. 
JERUSALEM. 
IN AN UPPER 
ROOM. 
Jesus' 
Faretvell 
Words at 
I lie Institu- 
tion of 
His Supper. 



The Two Lord's Prayers. — "In the 'Lord's Prayer' (Matt, vi.) 
Christ sets forth what His disciples should desire for themselves. In 
this prayer He indicates what He desires for them. It is interesting to 
study the forms in which the ideas of the Lord's Prayer are reproduced 
and developed in this." — M. R. Vincent. 



The Lord's Prayer. — "Out of Christ's divinely rich prayer-life 
there emerge, as from an ocean, the pearls of those single prayers of 
His that are preserved to us." " Add to these the mentions of the pray- 
ings, the thanksgivings, the heavenward sighings of Christ, 
as also His summonses and encouragements to pra} r er, and Prayer the 
He appears as the Prince of Humanity even in the realm of Root of the 
prayer ; in the manner, likewise, in which He has concealed Tree of Life. 
His prayer-life, exhibiting it only as there was necessity for 
its presentment. If we regard His work as a tree that towers into 
heaven and overshadows the world, his prayer-life is the root of this 
tree." 

' ' The same who, as the Son of God, is complete revelation, is, as the 
Son of Man, complete religion." — Lange. 



That He Should Give Eternal Life. — "Most of the old myths, 
legends, and traditions of the race that long ago passed current as popu- 
lar beliefs, and afterwards were laughed at and cast aside, had some 
foundation of truth and reality underneath them, — some soil of fact 



462 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVII : 1-5 

out of which they had grown." Sometimes the fact belongs not to 
physical nature, but to the realm of eternal verities. Such a myth, it 
appears to me, and one of the oldest and most widespread, was that of 
the fountain of youth. This wondrous fountain, with its life and health- 
giving power, is continually met with in literature. Quaint and credu- 
lous old Sir John Mandeville, who traveled into the far East during the 
first half of the fourteenth century, tells us that he saw and tasted its 
waters. ' Some men clepen it the Welle of Youte : for thei 
that often drynken thereat, semen alle weys yongly, and The Foun- 
ly ven withouten sykenesse. And men seyn, that that tain of 
welle comethe out of Paradys : and therefore it is so vertu- Youth, 
ous.' A hundred years after, Peter Myrtyr, writing to 
Pope Leo X., located it in the West, 'among the islands on the north 
side of Hispaniola,' and 'about three hundred and twenty-five leagues 
distant.' It was in this direction, too, that Juan Ponce de Leon soon 
after made his famous search for it, and was sorely disappointed 
because he only discovered Florida, nor caught even a glimpse of that 
miraculous fountain that should make and keep him young. 

" Now, there is such a fountain, and it actually has the power of giving 
eternal life and youth to all who drink of its waters. If travelers in 
olden times and since have not found it, it was not because it does not 
exist, but because they do not look for it at the right place. Others 
there are who have found it, and have proved its virtue. For the thirst 
for its waters has been felt in every human breast from time imme- 
morial, and the search after it has been going on from the earliest days, 
and still is going on 

"Who does not want to be young and remain youthful forever? 
Youthfulness is not a matter of years, nor a condition of the bodily 
frame of man. It is something pertaining to his spirit. 

" ' For all the base lies that the almanacs hold, 
While we've youth in our hearts we can never grow old ! ' 

" All who have quaffed of the waters of the Fountain of Youth, have 
found it to be no fable, but a blessed reality. It has not, indeed, kept 
their bodies from growing old, but their selves it has preserved in all the 
freshness, vigor, and buoyancy of their ' best years.'" 



There are three elements in these waters of eternal youth : 
(1). A past of happy memories. — Old people are full of reminis- 
cences. Now, if the memory be stored with an abundance of pleasant 
experiences, if it be a satisfaction to dwell upon our past deeds and life, 
then will it conduce to our happiness, help to make us contented and 
peaceful, in our old age. . . . Nothing ages a man so soon as the 



XVII: 6, 7 ST. JOHN 463 



6. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou 

gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest * * * 

them me ; and they have kept thy word. April b. 

7. 2sow they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast JERUSALEM. 
given me are of thee. IN 4'r ) Q?r PER 

Jesus' 
memory- of an unsatisfactory, useless, or wicked past. WordVat 

It is utterly destructive of youthfulness. the Institu- 

(2). The second is a living interest in the present and His Supper. 

its work. So long as your life glides swiftly along on A , 

the current, upborne on its bosom, it reaches in 
triumph the goal ; but the moment you permit it to be cast ashore, 
while the hurrying stream flows past, it will begin to break into pieces, 
to fall apart and decay. 

' ' The surf of his own past is not a man ; 
To change and change is life, to move and never rest." 

On the other hand the reason there are so many mentally worn out, 
decrepit, useless and unhappy old men and women in the world is 
because they have not done this, but, instead, have sunken idly by the 
wayside, dead to the present. 

(3). The third essential element is hope, the confident, cheerful out- 
look into the future. 

A contented memory of the past, an active interest in the present, a 
confident hope for the future, — who has these three shall never grow 
old. 

Xeed we yet be told where is the Fountain whence, and whence 
alone, these can be obtained ? Only Christ, by His pardoning power, 
can so sweeten the memory as to turn its regret and remorse into peace 
and contentment. Only He, by His constraining love, can keep up in us 
that steady interest in the welfare of our fellow-men that makes us work 
for and with them day in and day out, nor ever lets us tire of our labor. 
It is He, and He alone, who hath eternal life, and opens up before us an 
endless duration, in which the good deeds here begun shall ripen and 
be completed, giving hope, boundless hope, to even the poorest and the 
weakest, the oldest and the youngest. He, then, the Christ, is the 
Fountain of Youth for whom the ages have thirsted and searched far 
and wide, and who was nigh unto them all the time. — Condensed 
from Pres. I. Max Hark, D. D., in the Sunday School Times. 



The Wedged Life. — (1) Sparrows' wings, Mat. 10 : 29, short flight, 
forgiveness, (2) Doves' wings, Ps. 55:6, flying to God for rest and 



464 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVII : 8-12 



8. Fori have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have 
received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have 
believed that thou didst send me. 

9. I pray for them ; I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given 
me ; for they are thine. 

10. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine ; and I am glorified in them. 

11. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come 
to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given 
me, that they may be one, as we are. 

12. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name : those that 
thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that 
the Scripture might be fulfilled. 



peace, like Noah's dove. (3) Eagles' wings, Isa. 40:31, flying with 
power with broad views, soaring toward heaven, over rivers and moun- 
tains of difficulty, knowing neither obstacle nor danger. (4) Angels' 
wings, Rev. 14:6, 7, flying with the gospel to all men, with higher and 
swifter flight than eagles. — Condensed from Mrs. J. S. JSorvell in 
Northfield Echoes, 1897, vol. 3. 



3. Might know, •yivwo-Kaxri. — ' ' Might recognize or perceive. This is 
striking, that eternal life consists in knowledge, or rather the pursuit of 
knowledge, since the present tense marks a continuance, a progressive 
perception of God in Christ, That they might learn to know. Compare 
ver. 23 ; x: 38 ; 1 John v: 20 ; iv: 7, 8. 

" ' I say, the acknowledgment of God is Christ 
Accepted by thy reason, solves for thee 
All questions in the earth and out of it, 
And has so far advanced thee to be wise. 
Wouldst thou improve this to reprove the proved ? 
In life's mere minute, with power to use that proof, 
Leave knowledge and revert to how it sprung ? 
Thou hast it; use it, and forthwith, or die. 
For this I say is death, and the sole death, 
When a man's loss comes to him from his gain, 
Darkness from light, from knowledge ignorance, 
And lack of love from love made manifest,' " 
— Robert Browning, "A Death in the Desert." M. R. Vincent, in 
Word Studies. 

11, That They May be One as We Are. — One of the speakers in 
the parliament of religions relates a legend, that " when Adam and Eve 
were turned out of Eden, the earthly paradise, an angel smashed the 



XVII: 8-12 ST. JOHN 46- 



gates, and the fragments flying over the earth are the •i 



precious stones." He carries the legend further; he 
says that "the precious stones were picked up by the 



A. D. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 

various religions and philosophies, each claiming that I jerus \LEM 

his own fragment alone reflects the light of heaven. IN AN UPPER 

and is the true material of which the paradise gates are Je L 

made,'* "Patience, my brother; in God's own time ' Farewell 

we shall all of us fit our fragments together and re- the Institu- 

construct the gates of paradise." — Rev. Dr. H. Pereira HlVsuinJer. 

Mendes. Everv Christian soul, everv form of truth, 

every Christian denomination, is a fragment, one of * k 

the precious stones of paradise. God in his own time 

is bringing these precious fragments together, and reconstructing the 

Gates of Paradise. 



Church Unity. — In our country there are five chief forces making 
for Christian union : the Young Men's Christian Association, the Women's 
Christian Temperance Union, the International Sunday School Lessons, 
our hymn-books, with hymns from every denomination of Christians 
and every variety of Christian experience, and last, but not least, the 
Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor, all gathering up the 
scattered jewels, and uniting them again in the Gates of Paradise. No 
Lambeth articles, no papal encyclical, can begin to do as much as these 
five are doing to bring the Church into Christian union, into one great 
league of every land and every race, under our one Master, Jesus 
Christ. 



Symbol of Unity. — Christian unity is the unity of an army — with 
one leader loyal to one cause, but many departments and companies 
and organizations. It is the unity of nature, with one law and princi- 
ple, but with an infinite variety of forms. It is the unity of an 
anthem — several parts, many notes, many voices, an infinite variety of 
sound-waves; but in perfect harmony, under one leader, with one pur- 
pose. It is the unity of the body — one soul, one person, one life; but 
with a great variety of parts. 



In necessariis unitas ; "In essentials unity ; 

In dubiis libertas ; In non-essentials liberty ; 

In omnibus caritas.'' In all things charity." 

' In necessariis unitas ; 
In non-necessariis libertas ; 
In utrisque caritas." — Rupertus Meldenius. 
30 



466 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVII : 8-12 

Unity of Christians. — " The Church Catholic may be said in its 
essence to resemble the internal fire of the earth, one undivided mass, 
finding its way into visible manifestation by means of several volcanoes, 
which in one country are named Hecla, in another ^Etna, in another 
Stromboli, in another Vesuvius ; and, to carry out St. Paul's analogy, 
the internal fire is one, and hath many volcanoes, and if Hecla should 
say, ' Because I am not Stromboli, I am not of the internal fire,' is it, 
therefore, not ot the internal fire? So also is the Body of Christ 
(1 Cor. 12: 15)" — Canon Wilberforce. 



" . . . I believe 
In one priest, and one temple, with its floors 

Of shining jasper, gloomed at morn and eve 
By countless knees of earnest auditors, 

And crystal walls too lucid to perceive — 

That none may take the measure of the place 
And say, ' So far the porphyry, then the flint ; 
To this mark Mercy goes, and there ends Grace."' 

— Mrs. E. B. Browning. 



Unity of Sound in the Upper Air. — " It has been said, whether 
by poetry or science matters not, that there is a certain point in the 
upper air, in which all the discordant sounds of the earth — the rattle 
of wheels, the chime of bells, the roll of the drum, the laugh of the 
child — meet and blend in perfect harmony. Surely it is more than a 
pleasant conceit, that when once lifted up in fellowship in Christ Jesus, 
we meet in a high and heavenly place where all things are gathered 
together in one." — Rev. Win. Adams. 



"■ Each has his gift : 
Our souls are organ pipes of divers stops 
And various pitch ; each with its proper notes 
Thrilling beneath the self-same breath of God ; 
Though poor alone, yet joined are harmony." — Kingsley. 



Blind Men and the Elephant. — Years ago, in rummaging the library 
of Bangor Theological Seminary, I found in an old book by one of the 
earliest converts in India, a story of a Brahmin, who was asked if the 
various views of Christians about their own religion did not lead him to 



XVII: 8-12 ST. JOHN 467 



A,D, 30. 
Thursday Eve. 

April 6. 
JERUSALEM. 
IN AN UPPER 
ROOM. 
Jesus' 
Farewell 
Words at 
tlie Institu- 
tion of 
His Supper. 



doubt its divine origin. He replied, "Not at all. ■£* 
Hear, my brother. There was once a city of which 
all the inhabitants were blind. One day a magnificent 
elephant passed through their streets ; and as none of 
the people had ever seen an elephant, all rushed down 
to examine it. One felt his leg, another his trunk, 
another his tail, one his ears, and one his tusk, till 
they were satisfied. The elephant went on his way, 
and they returned home. After a time the various 
visitors of the gigantic animal began to converse about 
him, and to describe to others what they had observed ; 
but all their evidence seemed contradictory. 

"One man, who had touched its tail, said the elephant was like a rope. 
Another, who grasped its trunk, said it was like a serpent. Another of 
the blind men, who had touched its hind limb, said, ' No such thing ! 
the elephant is like the trunk of a tree.' Another, who had felt its 
sides, said, ' That is all rubbish. An elephant is a thing like a wall.' 
And the fourth, who had felt its ear, said that an elephant was like 
none of those things ; it was like a leather bag. Another thought the 
ear was like a palm leaf. Disputes were running very high, when a 
wise old Brahmin interposed, and said, ' My dear brethren, all of you 
are right, and all are wrong. You each know a little, and only a little, 
of the great creature concerning which you would be informed. Now, 
instead of disputing, put together all you have heard, combine the 
different testimonies you have received, and by so doing you may best 
hope to gain some idea of the whole.' " 

So our tendency is to see truths a part at a time, according to our per- 
sonal experience or limited observation ; and then imagine that our 
part is the whole. " Truth is very much bigger than an elephant, and 
we are very much blinder than any of those blind men as 
we come to look at it." We remember the fable of the The 
chameleon, which by varied arrangements of its scales Chameleon, 
appears in different colors at different times, and each 
observer insisted that the color he saw was the true one, and all the 
other observers were in error. Different denominations of Christians 
focus around different aspects of the gospel. It takes them all to com- 
plete and perfect the Church of God. And all are one when they all 
recognize that each is a part of the great whole. 

Library. — This story is told by Saxe in one of his poems, and by 
Prof. Drummond in one of his lectures. 



Unity of an Orchestra and Choir. — There is a passage in Dickens 
which speaks of a chorus in which every man took the tune which he 



468 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVII : 13— 15 



13. And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they 
might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 

14. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they 
are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 

15. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou 
shouldest keep them from the evil. 

knew best, and sang it to his own satisfaction. This would be the kind 
of unity we would have if every denomination were required to conform 
to some state church, or forced into a formal union. 

True church unity is a great chorus with thousands of varying voices, 
but no two alike, with every kind of musical instrument in variety of 
tone ; but all on one key, all joining in one anthem, all under one 
leader, all pervaded with one spirit. 



Unity of the Gold Candlesticks. —The unity of the church is sym- 
bolized by the seven candlesticks of Revelation 1 : 20, not as the Jewish 
church was one, being the church of a single people, but composed of 
separate candlesticks, mutually independent, belonging to many differ- 
ing peoples and different ages, varying in appearance, in outward cere- 
monies, in government, in methods ; but absolutely one, because they 
are all kindled from the same heavenly flame, all bear the same light, 
all are made of the same precious material, all have one source and one 
head. This is the true unity, and vastly better than unity of form. 

Reference. — See further illustrations under verse 21. 



15. Not Taken Out of the World, but Kept from the Evil. — A 
ship is safe in the ocean, so long as the ocean is not in the ship, and it 
is safe only there. A Christian is safe in the world so long as the world 
is not in the Christian, and he is safest there. Storms are less danger- 
ous than the decay of idleness. 

A top stands so long as it is spinning. Ceasing to go, it falls. The 
Christian is kept by Christ through active service of Christ. When he 
ceases Christian activity he falls. 



Two Ways of Being Kept from the Evil. — See " Orpheus and the 
Sirens " under xv : 11. 



The Besetting Sin May Become the Guardian Angel. — " Let us 
thank God that we can say it ! Yes, this sin that has sent me weary- 
hearted to bed and desperate in heart to morning work, can be con- 
quered. I do not say annihilated, but, better than that, conquered, 



XVII : 1 6, 17 ST. JOHN 469 



16. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 

17. Sanctify them through thy truth : thy word is truth. 

captured, and transfigured into a friend ; sc that I, at 
last, shall say, ' My temptation has become my strength, 
for to the very fight with it I owe my force.' " — W. C. 
Gannett. 



A. ». 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April b. 

JERUSALEM. 

IN AN UPPER 

ROOM. 

Jesus' 

Farewell 

Words at 

the Institu- 
tion of 

His Supper. 



One Use of the Devil. — " Men are always prone to 
bow down and worship their nets and their bows and 
their spears, forgetting that they were fashioned not 
to be worshiped but to be used. The living faith of one century becomes 
a mere sarcophagus in the next. To prevent this only one specific is 
known to man, and that is to be constantly in campaign against the 
evils of the world. One of the great uses of the devil is to keep the 
church from the lethargy that ends in death. If there is but a suffi- 
ciently resolute warfare kept up against the wrongs, the abuses, and 
the misery of the world, the living spirit will perpetually renew, re- 
shape, and revolutionize the methods adopted to achieve success.'' — 
Essay on Lowell. 

Sanctify Them Through Thy Truth. — " I protest that if some great 
power would agree to make me always think what is true and do what 
is right, on condition of being turned into a sort of clock and wound up 
every morning, I should instantly close with the offer." — Prof. Huxley. 



How Men are Sanctified by the Truth. — " There must be some 
power of holiness within in order to be sanctified. Crucifying sins one 
by one in succession in order to be holy is like combatting the mani- 
festations of disease, without touching its root and spring. " The per- 
fect character can never be produced with a pruning knife." Others 
would copy virtues one by one. The difficulty about the copying 
method is that it is apt to be mechanical. One can always tell an 
engraving from a picture, an artificial flower from a real flower. To 
copy virtues one by one has somewhat the same effect as eradicating 
the vices one by one; the temporary result is an overbalanced and incon- 
gruous character. Some one defines a prig as li a creature that is over- 
fed for its size." 

The formula or receipt for sanctification (for is corn to grow by 
method and character by caprice?), is this : 

' We all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the 
Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even 
as from the Lord the Spirit,' 2 Cor. 3: 18. 



470 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVII : 1 8 



18. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the 
world. 

' ' What is the office of resolution, effort, self-crucifixion, agony ? 
Nothing less than to move the vast inertia of the soul, and place it, and 
keep it where the spiritual forces will act upon it. It is to rally the 
forces of the will, and keep the surface of the mirror bright and ever in 
position. It is to uncover the face which is to look at Christ, and draw 
down the veil when unhallowed sights are near. You have, perhaps, 
gone with an astronomer to watch him photograph the spectrum of a 
star. As you entered the dark vault of the observatory you saw him 
begin by lighting a candle. To see the star with ? No ; 
but to see to adjust the instrument to see the star with. It Photograph- 
was the star that was going to take the photograph ; it was, ing a Star, 
also, the astronomer. For a long time he worked in the 
dimness, screwing tubes and polishing lenses and adjusting reflectors, 
and only after much labor the finely focused instrument was brought 
to bear. Then he blew out the light, and left the star to do its work 
upon the plate alone. The day's task for the Christian is to bring his 
instrument to bear. Having done that he may blow out his candle. 
All the evidences of Christianity which have brought him there, all aids 
to faith, all acts of worship, all the leverages of the church, all prayer 
and meditation, all girding of the will — these lesser processes, these 
candle-light activities for that supreme hour may be set aside. But 
remember it is but for an hour. The wise man will be he who quickest 
lights his candle; the wisest who never lets it go out. No readjustment 
is ever required on behalf of the star. That is one great fixed point in 
this shifting universe. But the world moves. And each day, each 
hour, demands a further motion and readjustment for the soul. A 
telescope in an observatory follows a star by clockwork, but the clock- 
work of the soul is called the mil. To follow Christ is largely to keep 
the soul in such position as will allow for the motion of the earth. And 
this calculated counteracting of the movements of a world, this holding 
of the mirror exactly opposite to the mirrored, this steadying of the 
faculties unerringly, through cloud and earthquake, fire and sword, is 
the stupendous co-operating labor of the will. It is all man's work. 
It is all Christ's work. In practice it is both ; in theory it is both." — 
Prof. II. Drummond in The Changed Life. 



18. So Also Have I Sent Them. —The author of " The Autocrat of 
the Breakfast Table" describes the Broad Church and the Narrow 
Church, something on this wise : " The Narrow Church are in the ship's 



XVII : 19-22 ST. JOHN 471 



19. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might 
be sanctified through the truth. 

20. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which 
shall believe on me through their word; 

21. That they all may be one ; as tbou, Father, art in me, and 
I in thee, that they also may be one in us : that the world may 
believe that thou has sent me. 

22. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them ; 
that they may be one, even as we are one : 



A. D. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 

April 6. 
JERUSALEM. 
IN AN UPPER 
ROOM. 
Jesus' 
Farewell 
Words at 
the Institu- 
tion of 
His Supper. 



boats of humanity, rowing away with all their might ~ — v 

from the great hulk on which are the mass of human 
beings, who they say are sinking in the waves, and, as they row, are 
singing, 'We are safe, we are safe.' The Broad Church remain on 
board, trying to help, and declaring that the hulk will not sink." Now, 
unconsciously, he has come very near a true definition. It is not those 
who say that all men will be saved, who are broad : the narrowest people 
can preach universal salvation. But this is the real Broad CJiurch which 
does most to save all men from sin and hell ; has the most missions, most 
revivals ; seeks and prays most earnestly for the good of men, here and 
hereafter. And that is the Narrow Church that does the least for others ; 
that confines its efforts most to the bodies and outward conditions of 
men. True Christianity is ever broad, wide-reaching, seeking the salva- 
tion of the world. 



The Fiery Cross. — Scott, in one of his poems, refers to the beautiful 
custom of ancient Scotland of assembling their clans by means of their 
fiery cross. A light cross of wood was charred at its point, and the 
flames quenched in the blood of a goat. This was sent around to the 
villages and homes of the clan, each one sending it on to his next neigh- 
bor, with only the name of the meeting-place. And every one was 
bound under fearful anathemas to obey the sign. 

" When flits this cross from man to man, 
Vich Alpine's summons to his clan, 
Burst be the ear that fails to heed ! 
Palsied the foot that shuns to speed ! " 

So is Christ's cross, stained with His blood, the call to every disciple to 
go forth and preach the gospel. 



21. That They All May be One. — " I remember once to have stood 
on the shore when the tide was out, in the great Bay of Fundy. It was 
anything but a sightly vision that swept away before my eyes — little 



47 2 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVII : ig-22 

rivulets running here and there ; pools, so to speak, cesspools, creeping 
and noisome things, and unsightly appearances on every side. By and 
by the sound came from the sea, and the tide came sweeping in, and all 
the little pools were obliterated, and all the rivulets, running this way 
and that way, merged themselves in the great movement of that 
mighty tide ; and by and by the sun burst out over the whole ; the shin- 
ing of the splendor of God was on it, and the movement was immense, 
mighty, resistless, along the whole line of the coast. Brethren, when 
the tide is out in our closets, in our churches, in our seminaries, and 
elsewhere, there are noisome pools and cross rivulets and a thousand 
unsightly things ; but when, under the call and touch of God, the tide 
is in, and the spirit is moving on our hearts, then, with mighty concord 
alike of east and west, north and south, there will be the surging 
toward the coming of the kingdom, and one heart and one mind will be 
ours; and as in that early day, it will be Pentecost again, and Pentecost 
to stay." — E. P. Goodwin, D. D. 



Unity of a Violin. — " Take the Stradivarius violin. He went out 
in the forests, around about him, and selected more than forty different 
kinds of wood ; he had trained himself by the eye and touch so that 
he could detect the density of the wood, its age, and fiber, and estimate 
its resonant faculty, so that he knew just where to put each of those 
different kinds of wood in the violin. The belly and back, the sides, 
the bridge, the bottom, the neck and head, the keys, all made of differ- 
ent kinds of wood, so that the proper equilibrium might be maintained 
in all parts of the violin, and the most perfect harmony and responsive- 
ness. I have no hesitation in saying that the violin is the most perfect 
instrument ever made." — F. B. Meyer. 



" Now you know very well," says Dr. Holmes, in his Autocrat of the 
Breakfast Table, " that there are no less than 58 different pieces (a con- 
noiseur says, 72. — Ed.) in a violin. These pieces are strangers to each 
other, and it takes a century, more or less, to make them thoroughly 
acquainted. At last they learn to vibrate in harmony, and the instru- 
ment becomes an organic whole, as if it were a great seed-capsule, 
which had grown from a garden-bed in Cremona, or elsewhere. Besides, 
the wood is juicy, and full of sap for 50 years or so, but at the end of 
50 or a 100 more gets tolerably dry, and comparatively resonant. Don't 
you see that all this is just as true of a poem, and that if made of the 
true stuff, it will ring better after a while?" 

All this is true of the various parts of God's church, and now after so 
many centuries, these parts are becoming better acquainted, and grow- 



XVII IQ-22 ST. JOHN 473 
ing into a more perfect unity, and fitted to produce *J« »3H 



the perfect music of heaven on earth. 



A. I>. 30. 

Thursday Eve. 

April b. 

JERUSALEM. 

IN AN UPPER 

ROOM. 



Jesus' 
Farewell 
Words at 
tlie Institu- 
tion of 
His Supper. 



The "Sweetening" of a Ship. — "It is with 
churches as it was with the ship Dimbula, whose 
'sweetening' Rupyard Kipling describes in Tlie Day's 
Work. The ship, new-built and loaded with her 4,000 
tons of freight, had left Liverpool, and, as soon as 
she felt the lift of the open water, began to talk. 
In his inimitable fashion, Kipling describes how the 4 
capstan and the deck beams that supported it, the 
stringers, the frames, the screws, the thrust-block, the engines and 
every part of the vessel, from the the garboard-strake to the smallest 
rivets, were in protest against the strain and wrench ings of the waves 
At last, after the long and stormy voyage, the Dimbula verified what 
the captain had said,' that a ship is in no sense a reegid body closed at 
both ends. She's a highly complex structure o' various and conflictin' 
strains, wi' tissues that must give an' take, according to her personal 
modulus of eclasteecity. . . . Even after a pretty girl's christening 
a ship, it does not follow that there's seech a thing as a ship under the 
men that work her. . . . She's all here, but the parts of her have 
not learned to work together yet.' When the Dimbula, after crossing 
the ocean, was coming up to New York harbor, suddenly all the talking 
of the separate pieces ceased and melted into one deep voice, which is 
the soul of the ship. She had 'found herself.' She had been 'sweet- 
ened,' as the sailors say. And what must happen to all good ships 
must happen to all good churches. All the discordant voices of those 
that compose the church must melt into one deep voice, which is the 
soul of the church." — The Watchman. 

Unit Versus Unity. — "A unit is a bare one; a unity is the co-ordina- 
tion of several different ones into a state of oneness. A 
unit is one in the sense of numerical singleness ; a unity "Water as 
is one in the sense of harmonious pluralness. For example : Unit and 
A molecule of water, considered in its wholeness and in dis- Unity, 
tinction from other molecules of water, is a unit ; but the 
same molecule of water, considered in its composition as made of eight 
weights of oxygen and one weight of hydrogen, is a unity. 

But unity implies something more than harmonious variety of parts ; 
it also implies the subordination of these various parts to a 
common end. It is this co-operation of diverse parts to a Marble 
common end which makes these diverse parts as a whole Blocks and 
unity. For example : The separate blocks in a stone-yard the Temple. 



474 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVII : 1 9-22 

are not a unity ; they are only units ; but actually bring them together 
and fit them to one another in due shape and order for the purpose, say, 
of a temple structure, and they become a unity. In brief, it is the co- 
ordination of diverse units for a common end which makes a unity. 

And observe the effectiveness of a duly grouped co-ordinated unity. 
How is it that a steam engine, small compared with the mass it moves, 
is able to drive a mighty craft, with her ponderous cargo, in teeth of 
billows and tempest, from continent to continent? It is not merely 
because it is made of iron and worked by the expansive force 
of steam ; it is also because piston and cylinder, beam and Steam 
connecting-rod, crank and fly-wheel, valve and condenser Engine 
pump and governor, all w T ork in reciprocal adjustment and Unity, 
harmonious confederacy to a common end, namely, to send 
the steamer across the Atlantic. But let some slight derangement of 
the machinery occur, some valve refuse to work, some cog interfere, 
some pin give way ; and the engine, which has been a useful unity, 
becomes a mass of useless units. In fine, unity consists in converged 
diversities, where all the ends are means, and all the means are 
ends. 

"Remember that it is not given to any one man or to any set of men, 
however great, to comprehend all the truth; for, if it were, men would 
be infinite. Accordingly, while sectarianism is born of sin and is 
devilish, sect is born of finiteness and may be even angelic. Do not try 
then to secure unity by hammering diversities into monot- 
onous flatness. But try to secure unity by soaring high Sect and 
enough to comprehend diversities, even as God's own sky Sectarianism, 
comprehends forest and ocean, valley and mountain. Not 
compromise but comprehension; this is the secret of church unity. 
When we cannot agree, let us ' agree to disagree.' Instead of maxi- 
mizing the points where we differ and minimizing the points where we 
agree, let us maximize the points where we agree and minimize the 
points where we differ, following after things which make for peace, 
and things whereby we may upbuild one another, giving diligence to 
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." — George Dana 
Boardinan, D. D. 



Unity of Light. — Often from a mountain top we have seen a pros- 
pect through different colored glasses, as we see truth through our own 
personal experiences, and the atmosphere of the times in which we live. 
The different denominations and societies are like the colors of the 
spectrum, mostly pure light, with much more apparent differences than 
real; but altogether forming the pure white light of God's true church; 
the differences, so far as they are real light, and harmonious, revealing 



XVII : 19-22 ST. JOHN 475 

the splendor and beauty and infinite variety of the 
Gospel, adapted to all classes and all ages. 



A. ». 30. 

Thursday Eve. 
April 6. 

TERUSALEM. 
IN AN UPPER 
ROOM. 
Jesus' 
Farewell 
Words at 
the Institu- 
tion of 



The Rainbow of Life. — 

" A raveled rainbow overhead, 
Lets down to life its varying thread: 
Love's blue, joy's gold, and fair be 

tween 
Hope's shifting light, of emerald green; His Su PP er » 

While either side, in deep relief, *i* •i 

A crimson Pain, a violet Grief ! 
Wouldst thou, amid their gleaming hues, 
Clutch after those, and these refuse? 
Believe ! as thy beseeching eyes 
Follow their lines, and sound the skies, 
There, where the fadeless glories shine, 
An unseen angel twists the twine ! 
And be thou sure, what tint soe'er 
The sunshine's broken rays may wear, 
It needs them all, that, broad and white, 
God's love may weave the perfect light." 

— Mrs. Helen H. S. TJwmpson. 



A Symbol of Unity. —The mother of Charles Read, M. P., used to 
have in her Bible a symbol of a circle with Christ in the center, and all 
the radii converging on him, and under it the legend, " The nearer we 
are to the Christ, the nearer we are to one another." 

Klein Brothers. — It is said that a German family by the name of 
Klein emigrated to this country and settled in various parts. They lost 
track of one another. One of them kept the German name Klein. The 
others translated it. one taking the name Little, the other that of Small. 
By some accident they met at the post-office in New Orleans and learned 
that they were brothers under different names. So the different 
denominations are varying translations of the same name, " Christian.'' 



" Four Travelers, a Turk, an Arab, a Persian and a Greek, having 
met on their way, decided to unite their money in a common fund for 
the purchase of refreshments, and consulted as to what could be bought 
with the ten parahs which was all that each possessed. 

The Turk called for Uzum, and the Arab for Ineb ; Inghur, said the 



476 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVII : 1 9-22 

Persian, and the Greek insisted npon Staphulen. With that they fell 
into hot dispute and would have come to blows but for a fifth traveler 
passing by, who chanced to know the four languages, and who bought 
for them a basket of grapes. 

Then they found, greatly to their astonishment, that each had pre- 
cisely what he had desired. 

Now, the four Oriental travelers, when they had partaken together 
of the basket of grapes, journeyed on in company until the night. 
Then, as the place of encampment was a wilderness beset with wild 
beasts, they agreed to keep watch by turns. It chanced that the first 
traveler was a hewer of wood, the second was a sculptor, the third was 
a painter, and the fourth a weaver. The hewer of wood, being the 
the first to watch, felled a tree and secured a log, from which as he had 
nothing else to do, he stripped the bark, rubbing and polishing it to a 
beautiful smooth surface. 

Then came the turn of the sculptor, who seeing the straight, fine- 
grained piece of precious wood, carved it into the semblance of a lovely 
nymph. The painter next employed his hours of watching in giving 
the exquisite touches of natural colors to the masterpiece, and the 
weaver, seeing all this, spun and draped about the nymph a delicate 
and beautiful fabric. 

In the morning, when the four sojourners saw the results of their 
joint efforts, each one believed that his part in the work was the only 
essential one, so each claimed the statue ; but the fifth traveler had 
slept near by, as the story goes, and he was a spiritual teacher." 

1 1 1 Why,' he said, ' do you quarrel about a mere block of wood ? Unite, 
rather, in asking the gods to breathe into your statue the breath of 
life, that a living soul may be yours to guard and guide you on your 
way.' 

"Then the four travelers forgot their anger and prayed to the gods, 
who heard their petition ; and the statue became a living soul, the 
guardian angel that led them safely through the wilderness. Fellow- 
ship means more than any exterior event or union for practical pur- 
poses Until there are manifestations of spiritual union, it is like the 
statue of wood, not worth talking about ; but inspired by the living, 
in-breathing spirit of love, this fellowship may become the guardian 
angel of the world." — Laura E. Scammon, in address before the Mis- 
souri Federation of Clubs. 



Conservation and Correlation of Force. — According to Prof. 
Tyndall the discovery of this principle is the most important discovery 
of the century up to that time. '' This principle, so startling when first 
announced, is now a matter of interesting but familiar demonstration 



XVII : 19-22 ST. JOHN 477 



to our public school children. Heat, light, electricity, ■£■ 

chemical action, etc.. instead of being distinct prop- A. ». 30. 

erties inherent in the matter that reveals them, are j Thursday Eve. 
but varying modes of motion, different phases of the . jertoalem 
undefined reality which science calls force. These INANUPPER 
manifestations, which a hundred years ago were sup- 
posed to be not only different but antagonistic elements Farewell 
in nature, are now made to play hide-and-seek under tlie in^titu- 
the hand of the experimenter. They change their mVsupper 
guise as often and as promptly as the fabled gods 
of Greece." So "the older schoolbooks taught con- v v 
fidently of five senses seeing, smelling, hearing. 
tasting, feeling : but the newer science resolves these five back into one 
and says they are all phases of the one sense, touch. When the waves 
of the unknown something are gathered upon the retina of the eye the 
optic nerve reports the touch. When they strike more heavily and 
slowly the drum of the ear, the auditory nerve feels and reports the 
touch. Smell is the touch of the nostril and taste the touch of the 
mouth." — Rev. J. L. Jones. 



What Small Thlsos Divide Us. —President Cairns, of Edinboro, 
once illustrated to me the slight differences between two of the three 

great Scotch churches, which he hoped to see united, by the story of 
two poor, lonely, old sisters, who had inherited a little house with one 
room. They quarreler and drew a chalk line aero-- the floor of their 
room, on either side of which each lived, never speaking to. or recog- 
nizing the other. E ked her own little meal, and ate it on her 
own little table. Each swept and washed her own side of the floor. 

• Sects seventy-two they say the world infest. 
And each and all lie hidden in thy breast." 



The True Unity. — '-According to the present scientific theory, all 
of the planets came out of the sun. That central orb sent off ring after 
ring, and the=e consolidated into planets and then, moving within the 
influence of their common origin, they swing without collision around 
the grand common centre of the sun itself. S:>. should not the denom- 
inational planets also swing without collision around their great com- 
mon center, the Sun of Righteousness, our glorious Lord Jesus Christ 
Himself."— H. M. Seudder, D. D, 



Reference. — See other illustrations under ver. 11 



478 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVII : 23-26 

23. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that 
the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast 
loved me. 

24. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I 
am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst 
me before the foundation of the world. 

25. righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I hare known thee, 
and these have known that thou hast sent me. 

26. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it / that the love 
wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. 

Library. — Illustrations of Christian Unity may be found in the 
pamphlet Sermon on The Unity of the Church, by George Dana Board- 
man, D. D., of Philadelphia. Rev. Dr. F. E. Clark's World-Wide 
Endeavor, p. 213 and 268. Whately's Annotations on Bacon's Essays, 
p. 25. Dr. O. W. Holmes' Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, p. 104. 
Prof. Eli's Social Law of Service, p. 112, 126, 134, 137. Peyton's Memo- 
rabilia of Jesus, chapter 2, first paragraph, and p. 299. Dr. Behrends' 
Old Testament Under Fire, pp. 195-197. The College of the Apostles, 
p. 153. Jacox's Secular Annotations, vol. 1., p. 348. " Cooperant 
Units." Wendell Phillips' Lectures, p. 244. Report of the Parliament 
of Religions, vol. 1, p. 535. Farrar's Messages of the Books, p. 145. 



XVIII: i-3 



ST. JOHN 



4/9 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



THE TRIAL OF CHRIST. 



1. When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with 
his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into 
the which he entered, and his disciples. 

2. And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place: 
for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples. 

3. Judas then, having received a band of men and officers 
from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with 
lanterns and torches and weapons. 

Pictures. — Jesus in Gethsemane, Hofmann, Dela- 
roche, Jalabert ; Christ Taken Captive, Hofmann. 
Picture of Judas in the Royal Gallery of Dresden. 



A. D. 30. 

Friday Mom., 
April 7 . 

JERUSALEM. 

The Trial 

of Jesus, 

from One 

O'clock till 

after Eight 

O'clock. 



Durer's Pictures. — Diirer made " The Passion n one of his chief 
subjects. " He designed two immortal series of wood engravings, one, 
known as ' The Greater Passion,' published in 1511, consisting of twelve 
folio wood-cuts ; the other, in 1516, called ' The Little Passion,' consists 
of thirty-seven smaller sketches.'' — Farrar. Among these are, "The 
Man of Sorrows," "The Agony in the Garden," " The Arrest," "The 
Ecce Homo," "The Derision," "Christ before Pilate," " Christ before 
Herod," "The Flagellation," "Christ Crowned with Thorns," "Pilate 
Washing His Hands," "Christ Sinks Beneath the Cross," " St Veron- 
ica," "The Nailing of Christ to the Cross," " The Crucifixion." 



Library. — Durer's "Little Passion" is published by Macmillan. 



2. Judas Also, Which Betrayed Him. — Draw a circle with several 
radii. In the center write, Betraying Christ, and on each radius write 
one of the things which lead or tend to this great crime, as love of 
money, self-seeking ; spiritual sleeping, neglect of duty, disobedience. 



As Gehazi grew bad under the very best influences of the prophet, so 
Judas developed in evil while under the instruction of Jesus. The very 
sun and rain that make live plants flourish bring the dead plant to 
decay. 



480 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVIII : I-3 

" We are not worst at once ; the course of evil 
Begins so slowly, and from such slight source, 
An infant's hand might stem the breach with clay ; 

" But let the stream grow wider, and philosophy, 
Age, and religion, too, may strive in vain 
To stem the headstrong current." 



What a change from the Judas as he appeared a few weeks before 
among the disciples ! The worm had been long eating out the heart of 
the tree, like the white ants of tropical Africa, and when the storm 
came it fell suddenly with a crash. He was like the house built on the 
sands, seemingly safe till the winds blew and the rain beat upon it 
(Matt. 7: 26, 27). The evil spirit whispered to him: — 

" Be mine and Sin's for one short hour, and then 
Be all thy life the happiest man of men." 



The greatness of the sin is almost overshadowed by the meanness of 
it. A kiss was probably a disciple's usual greeting of the Master. Noth- 
ing can be meaner than the betrayal by Judas, who but a few hours 
before had eaten the covenant of friendship with his Master. Compare 
Green's History of England, i : 231, on King John. " Foul as it is, hell 
itself is defiled by the fouler presence of John. Judas can no longer be 
lonely." 



Library. — "The gold touch," or story of Midas in Hawthorne's 
Wonder-Book. The different fruits are considered in the course of the 
story. 

"As the dog, in JEsop's Fables, lost the real flesh for the shadow of it, 
so the covetous man casts away the true riches for the love of the 
shadowy." 



Pictures. — The Betrayal, Ary Scheffer, Griger, Van Dyck ; Christ 
Taken Captive, Hoffmann ; Judas Receiving the Silver, Giotto. 



Library. — Hawthorne's Mosses from an Old Manse, "The Bosom 
Serpent." Shakespeare's Julius Caesar \ the account of Brutus killing 
Caesar, his most intimate friend. See on xiii: 20. 



Compare The Man Without a Country, by Rev. E. E. Hale, D. Bv 



XVIII: 4-9 ST. JOHN 481 



A. D. 30. 

April 7, Friday 

Mornings 

about One 

O'clock. 

GETH- 

SEMANE. 

The 

Betrayal. 



4. Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon 
him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? 

5. They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto 
them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him stood 
with them. 

6. As soon then as he said unto them, I am he, they went 
backward, and fell to the ground. 

7. Then asked he them again, Whom seek ye? And they 
said, Jesus of Nazareth. 4* — "i* 

8. Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he : if therefore 
ye seek me, let, these go their way : 

9. That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gavest 
me have I lost none. 

■ ruM- 

Library. — "The Lost Leader," in 3££s» Browning's Poems. " Just 
for a handful of silver he left us." In his Vision of Hell, "Dante has 
placed Judas in the lowest circles of the damned, as the sole sharer 
with Satan himself of the very uttermost punishment." Poe's Raven, 
and the sad refrain of " Nevermore." Bulwer's Poems, on Judas. 



Reference. — See illustrations in Suggestive Illustrations on Matthew 
p. 427-430. 

" In the old legend St. Brendan saw a man sitting on an iceberg, and 
recognized him to be the traitor Judas, who told him how at Christmas- 
time, amid the drench of the burning lake, an angel had bidden him to 
cool one hour on an iceberg in the Arctic Sea. When he asked the 
cause of the mercy he recognized in the angel a leper to whom he had 
given a cloak for shelter from the wind in Joppa, and for that kind 
deed he got this respite. Rejecting its ghastly side, we can accept its 
truthfulness. Charity is better than all burnt offering. — Canon Farrar. 

Library. — Matthew Arnold's Poems, " St. Brendan." 

6. They Went Backward and Fell to the Ground. — " Caius 
Marius, when reduced to the utmost misery, was shut up in a private 
house in Minturnse, and an executioner was sent to kill him, but though 
old and unarmed, the man was so awed by his appearance, that ' as if 
struck with blindness, he flung awa} T his sword, and ran away astonished 
and trembling,' on which the inhabitants releaser! the great Roman and 
favored his escape. But this is no parallel to the case of Christ. Re- 
31 



482 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVIII : 4-9 

member it was trained Roman warriors and the trusted followers of the 
Sanhedrin who 'went backward,' etc. We cannot doubt that on this, 
as on other occasions, the glory of Christ's Divine nature shone out for 
great purposes, and was sufficient to effect them without the use of the 
secular sword which Peter drew." — Biblical Museum. 



The Solar Look. — The power of righteousness over conscious wrong. 
"The earthly look, other things being equal, quails before the solar 
look." "The veriest sick girl with this solar light behind her eyeballs 
is more than a match for Caesar without it." — Joseph Cook. 



Library. — Sir Walter Scott's Marmion, — where this great prince 
cowers before the sudden appearance of one he had wronged. Joseph 
Cook's Conscience, ("The Solar Look ") one of the best of his " Mon- 
day Lectures '' 

8. I am He. — "He could have swept them away at a breath — He 
stood and, for love's sake, permitted omnipotence to be bound. Such a 
picture of God no other painters have been able to draw. Beside the 
Christus Vinctus of the Evangely. how feeble is the Prometheus Vinc- 
tus of .ZEschylus." 

9. Have I Lost None. — No power can prevent Christ's guardianship 
over us, or, like a wolf, destroy one of the sheep in His fold. Standing 
at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and looking up a thousand feet 
to its top, it seemed a dangerous thing to enter one of those elevators. 
But when we learned that they had been run daily for two weeks before 
a passenger entered them, and since then a million people had been 
carried up without an accident, faith in its safety greatly increased, and 
we went up as calmly as we would climb a hill. So we can trust Jesus, 
for never has one been lost who trusted in Him. 



This Hand Never Lost a Man. — A gentleman traveling in the Alps 
came to a place where the path seemed to end at a jutting rock on one 
side and an awful precipice on the other. The guide, holding on to the 
rock, put his other hand out over the precipice for the traveler to step 
upon, and thus pass the jutting rock. He hesitated, when the guide, 
holding out his hand said, " Thut hand never lost a man." Then the 
traveler stepped upon that hand with faith, and passed the danger. 
Jesus can say to every one who trusts in Him, " I never lost a man." 



XVIII : IO-I8 ST. JOHN 483 



A. D. 30. 

Friday Morn-* 

ing, Before 

Daylight, 

April 7. 

HIGH 

PRIEST'S 

PALACE. 

Trial 

Before Hie 

Hiii-li 

Priest; 

Peter's 

Denial. 



10. Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the 
high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's 
name was Malchus. 

11. Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the 
sheath : the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not 
drink it? 

12. Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews 
took Jesus, and bound him 

13. And led him away to Annas first ; for he was father in 
law to Caiaphas. which was the high priest that same year. 

14. Now Caiaphas was he, which gave counsel to the Jews, 
that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. 

15. 11 And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another 

disciple: that disciple was known unto the high priest, and went in with Jesus into 
the palace of the high priest. 

16. But Peter stood at the door without. Then went out that other disciple, 
which was known unto the high priest, and spake unto her that kept the door, and 
brought in Peter. 

17. Then saith the damsel that kept the door unto Peter, Art not thou also one 
of this man's disciples ? He saith, 1 am not. 

18. And the servants and officers stood there, who had made a fire of coals, for 
it was cold : and they warmed themselves : and Peter stood with them, and warmed 
himself. 

10. Malchtjs; Remedying the Evil. —From the other evangelists 
we learn that Jesus did all he could to repair the injury done by Peter's 
rash act ; he healed the wounded man. ' ' In Luke the scene is very 
beautiful, the Lord saying, 'Suffer ye thus far' — ?, e., probably, 'Per- 
mit me thus far the use of my hands,' and touching the ear with heal- 
ing power." — W. N. Clarke. 

' ' Learn from yon Orient shell to love thy foe, 
And strew with pearls the hand that brings thee low, 
Free, like yon rock, from base vindictive pride, 
Emblaze with gems the wrist that rends thy side." 
" Oriental Poet," quoted in Hitchcock's Religion of Geology, p. 177. 



14. Now Caiaphas. — See under xi: 50. 



15. The Palace. — To understand the scenes here depicted it is need- 
ful to have before us a distinct picture of an ancient palace such as the 
high priests occupied, "for it was unlike most of our houses. A West- 
ern house looks into the street, but an Oriental into its own interior, 
having no opening to the front except a great arched gateway, shut 



484 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVIII: IO-18 

with a heavy door or gate. When this door is opened, it discloses a 
broad passage penetrating the front of the building and leading into a 
square, paved courtyard, open to the sky, around which the house is 
built, and into which its rooms, both upstairs and downstairs, look." 
" On the side of the passage, inside the outer gate, there is a room or 
lodge for the porter or portress, who opens and shuts the gate ; and in 
the gate there is a little wicket by which individuals can be let in or 
out." The band with Jesus entered by the large gate, Peter coming 
later, by the wicket gate. — Professor Stalker. 

Something like these houses may be seen in the arrangement of some 
of the large continental hotels. Still more nearly like them is the house 
of Panza at Saratoga, a restoration of one of the ancient Pompeian 
houses. A similar one has just been made in Washington. At Pompeii, 
within a few years, there has been a restoration as far as possible of 
much that was taken away, and especially has there been uncovered 
and restored the Palace of the Vettii, with its gardens and courts. As 
these were built within half a century of Christ's time, they give us a 
good idea of what Caiaphas' palace may have been. 



17. He Saith, I am Not. — Peter's danger arose from following 
afar off. 

" I have seen a heavy piece of iron hanging on to another, not welded, 
not linked, not glued to the spot, and yet it adhered with such tenacity 
as to bear not only its weight, but mine too, if I chose to seize it and 
hang upon it. A wire charged with an electric current is in contact 
with the mass, and hence its adhesion. Cut that wire through, or move 
it by a hair's breath, and the piece of iron drops dead to the ground, 
like any other unsupported weight. 

" A stream of life from the Lord, brought into contact with a human 
spirit, keeps the spirit cleaving to the Lord so firmly that no power on 
earth or in hell can wrench the two asunder." — Wm. Arnot. 



Pictures. — Peter Denying Christ, by B. West, Harrach, Ribera (at 
Seville); Jesus before Caiaphas (painter unknown). Durer's Little 
Passion. 



Peter's Fall. — "Many Christians are like the Leaning Tower of 
Pisa, — as far gone from uprightness as it is possible to go without top- 
pling over. The world is much more likely to pull over the Campanile 
at Pisa than the Campanile to lift the world." — Sunday School Times. 



XVIII : 19-26 



ST. JOHN 



485 



19. H The high priest then asked Jesus of his disciples, and 
of his doctrine. 

20. Jesus answered him, I spake openly to the world; I ever 
taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews 
always resort; and in secret have I said nothing. 

21. Why askest thou me? ask them which heard me, what I 
have said unto them ; behold, they know what I said. 

22. And when he had thus spoken, one of the officers which 
stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand saying, 
Answerest thou the high priest so? 

23. Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness 
of the evil : but if well, why smitest thou me ? 

24. Now Annas had sent him bound unto Caiaphas the high 
priest. 

25. And Simon Peter stood and warmed himself. They said 
Art not thou also one of his disciples? He denied it, and said, I 

26. One of the servants of the high priest, being his kinsman 
off, saith, Did not I see thee in the garden with him ? 



A. ». 30. 

Friday Morn- 
ing, Before 
Daylight, 
April 7. 

HIGH 
PRIEST'S 
PALACE. 

Trial 
Before the 

High 
Priest ; 
Peter's 
Denial. 



therefore unto him, 
am not. 
whose ear Peter cut 



18. And Peter Stood With Them. — " How to beat the French," was 
the title of a lecture delivered in i860, by; Prince Frederick Charles, then 
a young soldier with abundant enthusiasm, but no fame. One of the 
chief points — borrowed, by the way, confessedly from the French tac- 
tics — was this: " Never defend passively, but offensively.'" — The 
Advance. The same principle is taught by the Latin proverb from the 
history of the wars of Rome with Carthage, " Carry the war into 
Africa." 



The wrong course of Peter as to temptation was his put- 
ting himself in the way of it without boldly committing Peter's 
himself on the right side. The only safe way is to keep out Wrong 
of temptation, or to be so full of faith and courage when Course With 
forced into it that it cannot harm you ; as, according to the Tempta- 
legend, the fires of hell could not burn the saint cast into tion. 
them, because his soul was full of heaven. 



Solon's Law. — ' ' One of Solon's laws was that, in case of insurrec- 
tion in the city, he who does not attach himself to either party, or act 
on either side, shall be branded with civic infamy. Solon's theory was 
that neutrality in a disturbed condition of the state indicated either 
indifference to the public well-being, or the most sordid selfishness." — 
Dr. Peabody's Plutarch on the Delay of Divine Justice, p. 10. 



486 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVIII : 27 

27. Peter then denied again; and immediately the cock crew. 

19. The High Priest Asked Jesus. — What an array of witnesses 
they might have found had they wished to learn the truth ; 
here a company of those who had been lame, but now were A Possible 
running to tell the story of their healing ; there a band of Array of 
those who had been blind, but now could see ; lepers who Witnesses, 
had been cleansed ; demoniacs clothed and in their right 
mind ; sick raised from their beds, and dead brought to life again ; sad 
hearts comforted ; sinful souls redeemed ; ignorant minds enlightened ; 
wandering ones restored. It is still the same ; many men refuse to look 
at the true witnesses for the gospel which are many and strong. 



25. Peter's Second Denial. — Peter, having begun to go wrong is like 
a man in a quicksand, sinking deeper with every effort to advance. 



" Once Denied, Thrice Denied." — " Lie engenders lie. Once com- 
mitted, the liar has to go on in his course of lying. It is the penalty 
of his transgression. To the habitual liar, bronzed and hardened ift 
the custom till the custom becomes second nature, the penalty may seem 
no terrible price to pay. To him, on the other hand, who without delibe- 
rate intent, and against his innermost will, is overtaken with such a fault, 
the generative power of a first lie to beget others, the necessity of sup- 
porting the first by a second and a third, is a retribution keenly to be felt, 
while penitently owned to be most just. Dean Swift says : ' He who 
tells a lie is not sensible how great a task he undertakes ; for he must be 
forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one ; ' and F. W. Robert- 
son ; ' One step necessitates many others. The soul gravitates down- 
wards beneath its burden. It was profound knowledge which pro- 
phetically refused to limit Peter's sin to one. Mr. Froude shows us 
Queen Elizabeth stooping to ' a deliberate lie.' At times ' she seemed to 
struggle with her ignominy, but it was only to flounder deeper into dis- 
traction and dishonor.' Nobody ever did anything wrong without 
having to tell one or more falsehoods to begin with : the embryo mur- 
derer has to tell a lie about the pistol or dagger, the would-be suicide 
about the poison. ' The ways down which the bad ship Wickedness 
slides to a shoreless ocean must be greased with lies.' ' A lie is put out 
to interest, and the interest is compound.' So in one of Crabbe's 
' Tales,' — 

" ' Such is his pain who, by his debt oppressed, 

Seeks by new bonds a temporary rest.' " — Francis Jacox. 



XVIII: 27 ST. JOHN 487 



27. Peter Denied Again. — Peter failed in his 
strongest point. Courage, outspoken boldness, devo- 
tion to his Master, were his pride and boast. Here 
there seemed little danger of failure ; and yet just 
here he did fail. Where we feel strong we are liable 
to be unguarded, and we fail there for that very 
reason. 

It was now that Peter was " sifted as wheat." Part 
of what he thought was wheat was really chaff, and 
this terrible sifting under temptation blew away in the 
roughest manner most of the chaff, his inconstancy, 
his fiery temper, his self-confidence. 



A. D. 30. 

Friday Morn- 
ing, Be fore 
Daylight, 
April 7. 
HIGH 
PRIEST'S 
PALACE. 
Trial 
Before the 
High 
Priest ; 
Peter's 
Denial. 



Steps to Peter's Fall. — He had been self-seeking, striving to be 
accounted greatest ; he had been self-confident ; he had separated from 
his brethren ; he had slept when he should have watched and prayed ; 
he had ventured into evil company as one of them. His fall " was the 
fruit of seeds that he himself had sown. Men fall in private long 
before they fall in public The tree falls with a great crash, but the 
decay which accounts for it is often not discovered till it is down on 
the ground." — Ryle. 



'' O thou child of many prayers, 
Life hath quicksands, life hath snares." 

And the Cock Crew.—" Flinging the fold of his mantle over his head, 
he, too, like Judas, rushed forth into the night, but not as Judas ; into 
the unsunned darkness of miserable self-condemnation, but not into the 
midnight of remorse and despair ; into the night, but, as has been 
beautifully said, it was 'to meet the morning dawn.' If the angel of 
Innocence had left him, his ' younger brother,' the angel of Repentance, 
took him gently by the hand. — Farrar. 

Library. — Ambrose's " Hymn at the Cock Crowing." 

Peter's Repentance —It is a touching and beautiful tradition, true to 
the sincerity of Peter's repentance, if not a historical reality, that, all 
his life long, the remembrance of this night never left him, and that, 
morning by morning, he rose at the hour when the look of his Master 
had entered his soul, to pray once more for pardon. — Geikie. 



We do not judge Peter aright unless we take into the account, not 
only his sin, but also his repentance, and the change wrought into 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVII I : 27 

his character. It is easy to see faults and forget virtues, to look at the 
thorn and forget the rose, to imitate the faults of great men while we 
neglect their virtues. 

A diamond may fall into the mire, but it is a diamond still. 
Library. — Mrs. Browning's Poems, the three sonnets, "The Two 
Sayings," " The Look," " The Meaning of the Look." 

Look. — 

' ' The Saviour looked on Peter. Aye, no word, 
No gesture of reproach ! The heavens serene, 
Though heavy with armed justice, did not lean 
Their thunders that way ! The forsaken Lord 
Looked only on the traitor. None record 
"What that look was ; none guess ; for those who have seen 
Wronged lovers loving through a death-pang keen, 
Or pale-cheeked martyrs smiling to a sword, 
Have missed Jehovah at the judgment call ; 
And Peter from the height of blasphemy — 
' I never knew this man ' — did quail and fall, 
As knowing straight that God, and turned free 
And went out speechless from the face of all, 
And filled the silence, weeping bitterly. " — Mrs. Browning. 



Reference. — See further illustrations in Suggestive Illustration on 
Matthew, 433-435. 



The Meaning of the Look. — 

" I think that look of Christ might seem to say: 
' Thou, Peter ! art thou a common stone 
Which I at last must break my heart upon, 
For all God's charge to His high angels may 
Guard My feet better ? Did I yesterday 
Wash thy feet, My beloved, that they should run 
Quick to destroy me 'neath the morning sun ? 
And do thy kisses, like the rest, betray ? 
The cock crows coldly. Go, and manifest 
A late contrition, but no bootless fear? 
For, when thy final need is dreariest, 
Thou shalt not be denied, as I am here ; 
My voice to God and angels shall attest, 
Because I know this man, let him be clear.'' " 

— Mrs. Browning. 



XVIII: 28-32 ST. JOHN 489 



A. i>. 30. 

Friday Morn- 
ing, Before 
Daylight, 
April 7. 
HIGH 
PRIEST'S 
PALACE. 
PRETORIUM. 

Trial Be- 
fore Pilate. 



28. H Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of 
judgment; and it was early ; and they themselves went not into 
the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they 
might eat the passover. 

29. Pilate then went out unto them, and said, What accusa- 
tion bring ye against this man? 

30. They answered and said unto him, If he were not a male- 
factor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee. 

31. Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him 
according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, It 
is not lawful for us to put any man to death ; 

32. That the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what 
death he should die. 



Went Not . . . Lest They Should be Defiled. — " Bnllinger calls 
attention here to the wide difference between inward sanctification of 
the heart and outward sanctimoniousness about forms, ordinances and 
ceremonies. Calvin remarks that it is one mark of hypocrisy, 'that 
while it is careful in performing ceremonies, it makes no scruple of 
neglecting matters of the highest importance.'" — Ryle. They were 
like the soldiers who, finding a beautiful bag of jewels, threw away the 
jewels but kept the bag. 



29. Pilate. — " The man before whom he was arraigned we know as 
one of the most unjust, violent, cruel, and dangerous of scourges, one 
who was truly what his name signified, the slaying ' Javelin ' of the 
unhappy nation." — Keim. Philo (Ad Caium) speaks of "his corrup- 
tion, his acts of insolence, his habit of insulting the people, his cruelty, 
his continual murders of people untried and uncondemned, and his 
never-ending and most grievous inhumanity at all times, a man of most 
ferocious passions, very merciless as well as very obstinate." 

Pilate had outraged the Jews several times. His troops once brought 
their standards, with the image of the emperor, into the Holy City. 
The people were excited into frenzy till he had the standards removed. 
He had taken money from the treasury of the temple for the construc- 
tion of an aqueduct, which led to another riot and slaughter ; and he 
had slain some Galileans while in the act of sacrificing (Luke 13 : 1). 
He had reason to fear the Jews, for they had before this sent a deputa- 
tion to Rome on account of his acts, and this gave them more courage 
in presenting their cause. 

Thus Pilate's past history was a hindrance to present duty. He car- 
ried it about him like the dead body the Romans sometimes chained to 
convicts (Rom. 7 : 24). 



49^ SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVIII : 33—37 



33. Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said 
unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews? 

34. Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it 
thee of me? 

35. Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have 
delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done? 

36. Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of 
this world then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: 
but now is my kingdom not from hence. 

37. Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou 
sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came 1 into the 
world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth 
heareth my voice. 



Pilate's Life is like a beacon light to warn from dangerous rocks ; 
like the sign "Christian" and "Hopeful" put at the entrance to the 
way to Giant Despair's castle. 

"Well has an old English poet," says Prof. Phelps, "represented him 
as sunk beneath the waves, with nothing visible but his hands, and 
these washing themselves eternally in vain attempt to cleanse his soul." 



Hymn, beginning 

" I see the crowd in Pilate's hall, 
I mark their wrathful mien." 



Pictures. — Munkacsy's famous picture of Christ before Pilate , i 
Diirer's Christ before Pilate ; Ecce Homo, Correggio (Nat. Gallery, Lon- 
don), Cigoli (Pitti Palace, Florence), Guido Reni (Dresden). 



37. Kingdom of the Truth. — " Andrew Melville told King James, 
' there are two kings and two kingdoms in Scotland ; there is King 
James, the head of the commonwealth : and there is Christ Jesus, the 
King of the church, whose subject James VI. is, and of whose kingdom 
he is not a king, nor a lord, nor a head, but a member.' The entire his- 
tory of the Scottish church has been one long struggle to maintain this 
truth." — Stalker. 

All the real kings of the world belong to the kingdom of the truth. 
They are kings of ideas, kings in the realm of spirit, of thought, of con- 
science. 



Christ the King. — It is against the kingly office of Christ that men 
most rebel. As a good, kindly man, an ideal man, they have no objec- 



XVIII : 38 ST. JOHN 49I 



38. Pilate saith uuto him, What is truth? And vvheu he had 
said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, 
I find in him no fault at all. 

tion to him. It is only when He claims obedience, 
demands their giving up wrong things, interferes 
with their sins and selfishness, that men object. 



* 



A. D. 30. 

Friday Morn- 
ing, Be/ore 
Daylight, 
April 7. 
HIGH 
PRIEST'S 
PALACE. 
PRETORIUM. 

Trial Be- 
fore Pilate. 



Every One that is of the Truth Heareth My 
Voice. — "In the old pictures of the Christ Child, by 
the great masters, a halo proceeds from the babe that lights up 
the surrounding figures, sometimes with dazzling effect. And it is 
true that on all who approached Christ when He was 
in the world there fell a light in which both the good The Test. 
and the evil in them were revealed. It was a search- Ithuriel's 
light that penetrated into every corner, and revealed Spear. 
every wrinkle." There is a passage in Paradise Lost 
where a band of angels, sent out to scour Paradise in search of Satan, 
who is hidden in the garden, discover him in the shape of a toad 
1 squat close at the ear of Eve.' Ithuriel, one of the band, touches him 
with his spear, whereat surprised , he starts up in his own shape, — 

' ' For no falsehood can endure 
Touch of celestial temper, but returns 
Of force to its own likeness ! " 

" But the touch of perfect goodness has often the opposite effect : it 
transforms the seeming angel into the toad, which is Evil's own like- 
ness."— Prof. Stalker, D. D. 

" The men who touch Him in this supreme hour of His history do so 
only to have their essential characters disclosed. " — Principal Fairbairn. 



Deafness to Christ's Voice. — ' ' There is a form of deafness known to 
physicians in which the person affected is able to hear everything except 
words. In such a case the ear, as an apparatus for mere hearing, may 
be so perfect that the tick of a watch or the song of a bird is readily 
appreciated, but owing to a local injury deeper than the ear, for it is in 
the brain itself, all spoken words of his mother tongue are as unintelli- 
gible to the sufferer as those of a foreign language. Give 
him a book, and he may read as understandingly as ever, Peculiar 
but every word addressed to him through his ear reaches Kind of 
his consciousness only as a sound, not as a word. There Deafness. 



492 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVIII : 39, 40 



39. But ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the passover : 
will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews ? 

40. Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Bar- 
abbas was a robber. 



is a moral deafness which corresponds to this physical infirmity, 
but which, instead of being rare, is as common as it is harm- 
ful and disabling. To all men there is given an inner ear, which has 
been fashioned to hear Wisdom's words, but that ear often seems so dull 
of hearing that there appears no sign of response to her utterances." — 
Prof. W. H. TJiomson, M. D., LL. D., in Parables and Their Home. 



38. What is Truth. — " Aletheia (Truth) was a country beyond his 
jurisdiction, a Utopia which could not injure the empire. ' Why speak 
to me of ideal worlds ? ' " — Dods. As if he had said to Jesus, what kind 
of magic have you got that can work all these wonders, like Aladdin's 
lamp or Mercury's magic wand ? 



Library. — WJiately's Annotations, " What is Truth? " Sermons by 
Robertson, Series 1, " The Kingdom of the Truth," and "The Skepticism 
of Pilate." 



"One of the best tales of modern literature (Dickens' Our Mutual 
Friend) has introduced us into the associations and acquaintance of the 
family of 'The Veneerings' quite familiarly; they were showy and 
shallow, not to say in a measure dishonest, and making us imagine 
some of them were adventurers. Now the New Testament tells us of a 
vast kingdom with its divine King ; the kingdom of Truth of which 
King Jesus is the monarch and head over all." — C. S. Robinson, D. D. 



I Find in Him No Fault at All. — This prisoner of his, Pilate seems 
to feel 

" Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been 
So clear in his great office, that his virtues 
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against 
The deep damnation of his taking-off." 

— Macbeth, Act 1, Sc. 7. 

One recalls Shakespeare's words about Brutus : 

" His life was gentle, and the elements 
So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up 
And say to all the world, This was a Man." 



XVIII : 39> 40 ST - JOHN 493 



Library. — In Sidney Lanier's Poems, ' ' The Crys- ►£ 
tal," he shows that in all men, all authors,— Homer, 
Socrates, Dante, Eschylus, — there is something for 
him to forgive, some flaw in the crystal, " some little 
mold that marks you brother, and your kinship seals 
to man." 

"But thee, but thee, O sovereign Seer of time, 
But thee, O poet's Poet, Wisdom's tongue, 
But thee, O man's best Man, O love's best Love, 
O perfect life in perfect labor writ, 

" Oh, what amiss may I forgive in thee, 
Jesus, good Paragon, thou crystal Christ ? " 



A. ». 30. 

Friday Morn- 
ing, Before 
Daylight, 
April 7. 
HIGH 
PRIEST'S 
PALACE. 
PRETORIUM. 

Trial Be- 
fore Pilate. 



40. Not This Man, but Barabbas. — Pilate and the Jews threw away 
the great opportunity of their lives. 

" For of all sad words of tongue or pen, 
The saddest are these, ' It might have been.' " 

— Whit tier. 



"They cried out 'all at once.' It was the roar of what Burke calls 
the Bellua Popidus, that wild beast, the People. It was becoming 
frightful." — Dr. Deems. 

"This scene has often been alleged as the self-condemnation of 
democracy. Vox populi, vox Dei, its flatterers have said ; but look 
yonder. When the multitude has to choose between Jesus and Bar- 
abbas, it chooses Barabbas. If this be so, the scene is equally decisive 
against aristocracy. Did the priests, scribes, and nobles behave better 
than the mob? It was by their advice that the mob chose."— Stalker. 



Jesus or Barabbas.— 

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, 

In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side : 

Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom or 

blight. 
Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right, 
And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that light." 

— Lowell. 



The Fate of the Jews. — "Some thirty years later, and on that 
very spot, was judgment pronounced against some of the best in Jeru- 
salem; and among the 3,600 victims of the governor's fury, of whom 



494 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVIII 139,40 

not a few were scourged and crucified right over against the Prseto- 
rium, were many of the noblest of the citizens of Jerusalem." — Eders- 
heim. "Some of the wicked rulers and raging populace who that day 
cried ' Crucify Him ! ' and thousands of their children, shared in the 
unparalleled horrors of the destruction of Jerusalem (40 years later, 
a- d. 70"). — Clark. "They had forced the Romans to crucify their 
Christ, and . . . they and their children were themselves cruci- 
fied in myriads by the Romans outside their own walls." — Farrar. 
The Jews, had they accepted Jesus as their King, might to-day be walk- 
ing as kings and princes in the earth, and their city the central light 
of civilization. They rejected their King, and lost their kingdom, 
and it never will be recovered till they acknowledge Jesus to be their 
Saviour and King. 

The Fateful Choice. — Macaulay, in his essay on Milton (p. 43), says, 
" Ariosto tells a story of a fairy, who, by some mysterious law of her 
nature, was condemned to appear at certain seasons in the form of a 
foul and poisonous snake. Those who injured her during the period of 
her disguise were forever excluded from participation in the 
blessings which she bestowed. But to those who, in spite Ariosto's 
of her loathsome aspect, pitied and protected her, she after- Fairy, 
ward revealed herself in the beautiful and celestial form 
which was natural to her, accompanied their steps, granted all their 
wishes, filled their houses with wealth, made them happy in love and 
victorious in war." So what is done to Christ in His disguised and lowly 
form is a test of our character and of our love, and will be rewarded 
and blessed by Him when He comes in His glory; while those who 
reject Him in His humility must come before His judgment-seat when 
He sits on the right hand of the power of God. 



Pilate's Death — "Legend has it that Pilate, in extreme misery, 
cast himself from an Alpine peak into a mountain lake. The mountain 
is still called by his name, Pilatus, and a glittering lake, which reflects 
its dark shadow, bears the shape of the glorious cross." — Prof. Battle. 



XIX: i-5 



ST. JOHN 



495 



CHAPTER XIX. 



THE CRUCIFIXION. 



1. Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged Mm. 

2. And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on 
his head, aud they put on him a purple robe, 

3. And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him 
with their hands. 

4. Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, 
Behold. 1 bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find 
no fault in him. 

5. Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. 
And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man ! 



A. ». 30. 

April 7, from 
q a. in. to 
3 p. m. 
CALVARY. 
The Cruci- 
fixion. 



1. And Scourged Him (lnao-Ttyaxrev). — Its kindred noun, |ido-Ti£, a blow 
occurs several times in the metaphorical sense of a plague. " The word 
used for the scourging implies that it was done, not with rods, for Pilate 
had no lictors, but with what Horace calls the 4 horribile flagellum,' of 
which the Russian knout is the only modern representative." — Farrar. 



Scourging. — " The scourging of prisoners accused of misdemeanors, 
to force them to confess, prevails still. The value of confessions so 
extorted would not, one would think, be great. Yet the torture not 
seldom elicits the information wanted. Mr. C. M. Doughty tells of a 
case he witnessed, when traveling southward with the great Haj pil- 
grimage from Damascus. A servant, an aged man, was accused of 
stealing some forty pounds sterling from his Persian master. Called 
before an extemporized court, he was at once put to the torture. He 
was laid prone; men held his legs; some kneeled on his shoulders, and 
kneaded him without pity. Strokes, administered with a tough plant, 
resounded through the camp, mingled with the screams and groans of 
the struggling wretch. Four strong men exhausted themselves, and 
a fifth was handling the plant with fresh vigor, ere the culprit confessed; 
then he was borne forth, amid the curses of the company, to show 
the spot where he had buried the treasure. The accused was in this 
case guilty; but, innocent or guilty, he upon whom suspicion lights 
will be treated in the same way." — Rev. William E wing, in Sunday 
School Times. 



496 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIX : I -5 

Pictures. — Flagellation of Christ, Signorelli, Dore, Hoffman ; 
Christ at the Column, Velasquez (Nat. Gallery, London) ; Christ After 
the Flagellation, Moretto (Brescia). 



Pictures, Description of. — " In a psalter of the fifteenth century 
the Saviour stands in front of the column, covering His face with His 
hands. 

" According to the later type, the moment chosen is when the execu- 
tion of the sentence is just beginning. One man is binding the hands 
to the pillar, another is binding together a bundle of loose switches. 
The German representations are coarser than the Italian, but with more 
incident. They lack the spiritual feeling which appears in the best 
Italian specimens. 

" A field for a higher feeling and for more subtile treatment is opened 
in the moments succeeding the scourging. One of the very finest 
examples of this is the picture of Velasquez, ' Christ at the Column,' in 
the National Gallery of London. The real grandeur and pathos of the 
conception assert themselves above certain prosaic and realistic details. 
The Saviour sits upon the ground, His arms extended, and leaning 
backward to the full stretch of the cord which binds His crossed hands. 
The face is turned over the left shoulder full upon the spec- 
tator. Rods, ropes, and broken twigs lie upon the ground, Christ at 
and slender streams of blood appear upon the body. A the Column, 
guardian angel behind the figure of the Lord, stands bend- 
ing slightly over a child kneeling with clasped hands, and points to the 
sufferer, from whose head a ray of light passes to the child's heart. 
The angel is a Spanish nursery-maid with wings, and the face of the 
child is of the lower Spanish type, and is in striking contrast with the 
exquisite countenance of Murillo's Christ-child, which hangs next to 
this picture, and which is of the sweetest type of Andalusian beauty. 
The Saviour's face is of a thoroughly manly, indeed, of a robust typo, 
expressing intense suffering, but without contortion. The large, dark 
eyes are ineffably sad. The strong light on the right arm merges into 
the deep shadow of the bound hands, and the same shadow falls with 
startling effect across the full light on the left arm, marked at the wrist 
by a slight bloody line." — M. R. Vincent, in Word Studies. 



2. Platted a Crown of Thorns. — The soldiers then in jest dressed 
Jesus either in " the red robe, the soldier's common mantle, representing 
the purple robe worn by kings" (Godet), or a cast-off royal robe. They 
put on Him a crown of thorns, the green leaves of which would represent 
the laurel wreath worn by conquerors, as Caesar himself. They put a 



XIX: 1-5 ST. JOHN 497 



rod in His hand for a scepter. They smote Him, »J« 

mocked him in every insulting way. A. D. 30. 

April 7, from 
9 a. in. to 
3J>. m. 

Pictures, Description of. — " In the portrayal of calvary. 
the crowning with thorns, in a few instances, the The 

moment is chosen after the crown has been placed, the ° e ei y * 

action being in the rno<&- worship ; but the prevailing *k 

conception is that of the act of crowning, which consists in pressing the 
crown upon the brow by means of two long staves. A magnificent 
specimen is Luini's fresco in the Ambrosian Library at 
Milan. Christ sits upon a tribune, clad in a scarlet robe, Crowning 
His face wearing an expression of infinite sweetness and with 
dignity, while a soldier on either side crowds down the Thorns, 
crown with a staff. The Italian artists represent the crown 
as consisting of pliable twigs with small thorns ; but the northern 
artists have conceived, to quote Mrs. Jameson, 'an awful structure of 
the most unbending, knotted boughs, with tremendous spikes half a 
foot long, which no human hands could have forced into such a form.' 
In a few later instances the staves are omitted, and the crown is placed 
on the head by the mailed hand of a soldier." — 31. R. Vincent. 



Library. — Farrar s Life of Christ in Art. 



The Mockery. — For what could be equal to this insolence ? On that 
face which the sea, when it saw it, had reverenced; from which the sun, 
when it beheld it on the the cross, turned away its rays, they did spit, 
and struck it with the palms of their hands, and smote upon the head. 
— CJii*ysostom. 

People often ridicule their best friends, the highest truths, the sources 
of their greatest blessings. 

Bad men love to ridicule those who are better than they, to quiet their 
consciences when awakened by the nobler example. 

The best of causes are often misrepresented and ridiculed by putting 
them in a wrong light, and misunderstanding their nature, their plans, 
and their work. 

" Though the cause of Evil prosper, yet 'tis Truth alone is strong, 
And, albeit she wander outcast now, I see around her throng 
Troops of beautiful, tali angels, to enshield her from all wrong." 

— James Russell Lowell 
33 



498 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIX : I~5 

Examples. — The Reformation, the Puritans, the Methodists, the 
Baptists, the Calvinists, almost every religious denomination that 
grew out of a reform, are historical examples. So almost every inven- 
tion and science has been born, like Venus, from an ocean of opposition 
and calumny, and has been compelled, like the infant Hercules, to 
strangle the serpents that assailed it in its cradle. 

So the story of Rome's foundation, when Romulus killed his brother 
for sneering at the walls of Rome, and jumping over them to show of 
how little account they were. Yet Rome became the mistress of the 
world. Men may despise the acorn, but the oak is hidden there. They 
may sneer at the small black seed, but exquisite flowers are enfolded 
within it. 



11 The world goes up, and the world goes down, 
The sunshine follows the rain ; 
And yesterday's sneer, and yesterday's frown 
Can never come over again." 



Mockeries. — Many of the best things in the world have been ridi- 
culed in their beginning. The first steamboat, the first steamer across 
the Atlantic, the first missionaries, progress in theology, new discoveries 
in science and medicine. 

The early poems of Wordsworth were criticised as being next to 
idiotic. Byron says that this poet wrote so naturally of the Idiot Boy 
that he must be the hero of his own tale. Tennyson's early volume of 
poems, The Poems of Two Brothers, was a failure. Irving's first book 
manuscript was refused. Jane Eyre was again and again rejected. 
A publisher advised Miss Alcott, after reading one of her first manu- 
scripts, to " stick to teaching." — Hezekiah Butterworth, in Our Sunday 
Afternoon. 



Reference. — See Suggestive Illustrations on Matthew, p. 440. 



Momus was the classical god of satire and ridicule. He was the son 
of Night. Nothing in his eyes was beyond criticism and faultfinding. 
He found fault even with Venus because her golden slipper made so 
much noise ; and complained that the man made by Vulcan had not a 
window in his breast to let his thoughts be seen. 



5. Behold the Man. — Jesus is as it were, a composite photograph 
of all the best in human nature, including all types and all races. He 
is the ideal man. 



XIX: 6-i 8 ST. JOHN 499 



h ^ 



A. D, 30. 

April 7, from 
Q a. m. to 
3P- ™- 
CALVARY. 
Trial Be- 
fore Pilate. 



6. When the chief priests therefore, and officers saw him, 
they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith 
unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault 
in him. 

7. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law 
he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. 

8. H When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the 
more afraid; " T " **" 

9. And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art 
thou ? But Jesus gave him no answer. 

10. Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not 
that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? 

11. Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it 
were given thee from above : therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the 
greater sin. 

12. And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him : but the Jews cried out, 
saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend: whosoever maketh 
himself a king speaketh against Csesar. 

13. H When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat 
down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but iu the Hebrew, 
Gabbatha. 

14. And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour; and he 
saith unto the Jews, Behold your King! 

15 But they cried out, Away with him, away with htm, crucify him, Pilate saith 
unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no 
king but Cesar. 

16. Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took 
Jesus, and led him away. 

17. And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, 
which is called in the Hebrew, Golgotha; 

18. Where they crucified him, and two others with him, on either side one, and 
Jesus in the midst. 

"Asa fire catches the lump of dirty coal or clot of filth that is flung 
into it, and converts it into a mass of light, so at this time there was 
that about Christ which transmuted the very insults hurled at Him into 
honors, and charged even the incidents of His crucifixion, which were 
most trivial in themselves, with unspeakable meaning." 



9. Jesus Gave Him No Answer. — Jesus made no reply because a 
reply would have been useless. They would not accept a denial, and 
they would have perverted the meaning of any explanation He could 
make. He refused to "cast pearls before swine," or to " give that 
which was holy to dogs." There are many times when it is well for the 
church to imitate their Master in this, Do not waste time and strength 



500 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIX:6-lS 

in replying to blatant infidels who are determined to oppose Christianity 
under all circumstances. Replying often advertises the enemy ; and 
arguments take the attention from the main work of the gospel, the 
saving of the world from sin. Attend to the business of the church, 
save men from sin, culture them into a noble character, help the needy, 
visit the sick, preach the gospel ; and the works of Christianity will 
answer its enemies. 



12-14. Pilate Doing Wrong from Fear. — " Many hate not sin, nor 
fly from it, because it is sin; but as children do bees ; — not because 
they are bees, but because they have a sting. So do these persons flee 
from sin, not because it is sinful, but because it is hurtful." — Spiritual 
Honey from Natural Hives. 

17. And He Bearing His Cross Went Forth.— In the Via Dolorosa 
Jesus experienced two alleviations of His sufferings : the strength of a 
man relieved His body of the burden of the cross, and the pain of His 
soul was soothed by the sympathy of women. Is it not a parable — 
a parable of what men and women can do for Him still ? Christ needs 
the strength of men," " From women He seeks sympathy." "It was 
to Him a foretaste of the splendid devotion which He was yet to receive 
from the womanhood of the world. " — Stalker. 



Stations of the Cross. — In many of the Catholic churches in 
Europe there is a series of about a dozen pictures, representing the real 
and supposed scenes on this journey from the Pretorium to Calvary, 
called the Stations of the Cross. The series in the Cathedral at Antwerp 
is very beautiful. " These pictures embody the popular idea of Christ's 
weakness and exhaustion. In one He stands calm and erect, in another 
He is bending under the weight of the cross, and in another He has 
fallen beneath the load that was laid upon Him. It is at this stage 
of the proceedings that Simon, who is passing by, is arrested, and com- 
pelled to bear the cross after Christ." Sometimes, says Dr. Stalker, 
" the idea is carried out on a more imposing scale. On a knoll or hill 
in the neighborhood of a town three lofty crosses stand ; the road to 
them through the town is called Via Calvarii, and at intervals along 
the way the scenes of our Lord's sad journey are represented by large 
frescoes or bas-reliefs." 



Tradition of Veronica. — There is a tradition that Veronica, a pious 
lady of Jerusalem, was moved with pity on beholding the bloody and 
perspiring face of our Lord when on the way to crucifixion, and mani- 
fested her sympathy by giving Him her head-cloth to wipe off the 



XIX:6-l8 ST. JOHN 501 



perspiration, or brought out a towel and herself washed 
away the blood and perspiration from His face. In 
response to her kindness He returned the cloth with 
His features imprinted on it, an exact likeness of the 
"Man of Sorrows." Dr. Stalker follows the story 
with this sentence : "Some of the greatest painters 
have reproduced this scene, and it may be understood 
as teaching the lesson that even the commonest things 
in life, when employed in acts of mercy, are stamped 
with the image and superscription of Christ." 



A. ». 30. 

April 7, from 
g a. m. to 
3 P- m. 
CALVARY. 
On the 
Way to the 
Cross. 



Legend of the Wandering Jew. — There is another well-known 
tradition of the Wandering Jew, who, as Jesus with the cross passed 
his place of business, and leaned for rest against his porch, struck him 
a blow and harshly bade him move on; to which the Lord replied, 
turning to his assailant, ' ' Thou shalt go on and never stop till I come 
again." To this day the miserable man wanders over the earth unable to 
find rest or to die. Lew Wallace, in his Prince of India, makes use of 
this legend, and it plays a somewhat prominent part in literature. 
Dr. Stalker interprets the legend thus, "It is, I suppose, a fantastic 
representation, in the person of an individual, of the tragic fate of the 
Jewish race, which since the day when it laid violent hands on the Son 
of God, has had no rest for the sole of its foot." 



Library. — Farrar's Life of Christ in Art (Veronica) ; Farrar's and 
Geikie's Life of Christ ; Mrs. Jamieson's Sacred and Legendary Art. 
Prof. Stalker's Trial and Death of Jesus Christ. 



Pictures. — Jesus Bearing the Cross, Raphael, Bida, Dore; Elevation 
of the Cross, Rubens, Rembrandt; Tlie Crucifixion, Rubens, Diirer, 
Guido Reni, Tintoretto, Munkacsy, Plockhorst, E Burne-Jones; Descent 
from the Cross, Rubens, Fra Angelico, Rembrandt, Dore. 



17. Place of a Skull, Calvary, Golgotha. — Calvary, was doubt- 
less so named from its shape, a knoll in the form of a skull. 
Calvary is Latin and Golgotha Hebrew for skull. " Two hundred 
yards outside the Damascus gate of Jerusalem there is an isolated, 
white limestone knoll, in contour like the crown of the head and about 
sixty feet high. It contains in its perpendicular face the most remark- 
able resemblance to a skull. The two eyeless sockets, the overhanging 



502 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIX : 6-l8 

forehead, the lines of the nose, the mouth, and chin will be plainly seen. 
It is also concave, and the same color as a skull. On the summit of 
Golgotha there is a great pit heaped over with "stones. It 
was customary to bury the crucified at the foot of the cross. Description 
This pit is filled with the skeletons and bones of criminals of Calvary, 
who, from time immemorial, have been crucified and 
stoned. The bodies of criminals are still hurled into that same pit. A 
mighty earthquake upheaved this solid earth and split this very rock 
asunder. To the right of the skull the face of the cliff is oddly riven. 
In springtime Calvary is carpeted with scarlet anemones and the 
Calvary flower, which appear like drops of blood covering the white 
limestone. At the bottom of the western cliff there is a large garden 
with a very ancient well. Where it touches the foot of the cliff, six feet 
below the surface, the rock-hewn sepulcher of our Lord has been 
discovered. While I was in Palestine. George Miiller, the patriarch of 
faith, was led to excavate and recover the immortal tomb. Since then, 
its identity having been considered established, an English association, 
headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and five other bishops, secured 
the garden, with the interior of the sepulcher, for $15,000. In May, 
1896, over $13,000 of this had been subscribed. There is now a general 
concensus of opinion that this is the true Calvary. It alone fulfils the 
numerous and precise descriptions and the point of the compass 'north- 
ward' indicated by the Scriptures." — Wm. Brryman Ridges, in Biblical 
World for November, 1896. 



Library.— The Site of Calvary, by Hon. Selah Merrill 



18. Where They Crucified Him. — "At about nine o'clock, the hour 
of the usual morning sacrifice of the lamb, which was the type of Jesus, 
the Lamb of God was slain for the sins of His people. The cross was not 
so lofty and large as in most medieval pictures. The feet of the sufferer 
were only a foot or two above the ground — a fact of some weight, as 
showing that Jesus suffered in the midst of His persecutors, and not 
looking down from above their heads." — Schaff. Probably Jesus was 
nailed to the cross while it was lying upon the ground, then it was 
slowly raised with the sufferer upon it. 

At this time was offered to Jesus the stupefying draught which the 
women of Jerusalem were wont to administer to the sufferers, but which 
Jesus, with sublime heroism, refused to take. " Death by 
crucifixion seems to include all that pain and death can Calvary 
have of the horrible and ghastly — dizziness, cramp, thirst, the Cm- 
starvation, sleeplessness, publicity of shame, long continu- cifixion. 



XIX:6-l8 ST. JOHN 503 
ance of torment, horror of anticipation, mortification *%> »fr 



of untended wounds, — all intensified up to the point 
at which they can be endured at all, but just stopping 
just short of the point which would give to the sufferer 
the relief of unconsciousness. Such was the death to 
which Christ was doomed." — Farrar. 



A. ». 30. 

April 7, from 
q a. in. to 
J p. m. 
CALVARY. 
Tbe Cruci- 
fixion. 



The Cross " was planted on Golgotha, a dry, dead tree ; but lo ! it 
has blossomed like Aaron's rod ; it has struck its roots down to the heart 
of the world, and sent its branches upward, till to-day it fills the earth, 
and the nations rest beneath its shadow, and eat of its pleasant fruits." 
— Stalker. 



The Tree of Life. — ' ' Thomas a Kempis teaches his disciples to know 
poverty and humility as the roots of the tree of the cross, labor and 
penitence as its bark, righteousness and mercy as its two principal 
branches, truth and doctrine as its precious leaves, chastity and obedi- 
ence as its blossoms, temperance and discipline as its fragrance, and sal- 
vation and eternal life as its glorious fruit." — Zockler. It has resem- 
blances to the mystic tree Ygdrasil, the tree of the universe ; the Tree 
of Life and the Tree of Knowledge in one. 

Compare the Tree of Life in Revelation, and the Tree of Life in Eden. 
How perfect is the parallel to the blessings that come from the Tree on 
Calvary — food for body and soul, a never-failing supply of every 
variety, always fresh and new, and the healing and the health that 
always come with the gospel. 



But whether on the scaffold 

Or in the battle's van, 
The fittest place for man to die 

Is where he dies for man." 

— Michael J. Barry. 



Library. — Rev. Mr. Tenney's Our Elder Brother, ' ' Light from the 
Cross," p. 345. Whittier's Poems, "The Crucifixion." Mrs. Browning's 
Poems, "The Seraphim." Bp. Warren's Bible and Education, p. 41. 
Rev. Louis Albert Banks, TJie Christ Dream, pp. 161-170. Seven Words 
from the Cross, by W. Robertson Nicoll. 



Reference. — See under vii : 37-9, Oriental legend. 



504 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIX : 6-l8 

On the cover of one of his books Ingersoll placed three crosses and 
under them the legend, "For the glory of God;" and three telegraph 
poles with their cross-bars, which bore a resemblance to crosses, and 
under them the legend, "For the good of man." But without the 
crosses there would have been no telegraph poles. All the blessings of 
civilization are from the trees that grow upon the banks of the river of 
life. 



The Flaming Bush. — ' ' When the angel of the Eternal appeared to 
Moses in the burning bush, he forbade him to approach without taking 
his shoes from off his feet; 'for,' said he, 'the place whereon thou 
standest is holy ground.' 

" The cross is also a burning bush, — a furnace in which the Lamb 
without blemish is consumed. Let us not approach this holy place 
until we have removed from our hearts every carnal, worldly, or pro- 
fane thought ! " — Godet. 



Dante's Staircase from Despair to Hope, up to the gate 

" With frontispiece of diamond and gold embellished," 

had three steps. The first was of polished white marble, the holiness of 
God, in which is seen the perfect ideal, and our sinfulness by contrast 
as we look in this mirror. The second step was a dark, cracked, and 
broken stone, suggesting the broken and contrite heart. " The third 
step, upon which stood both feet of the angel who guarded the entrance, 
was a solid block of porphyry, red as the blood that spurts forth from 
the smitten vein. Surely we see nothing else in this but the blood of 
the Lord Jesus Christ shed as an atonement for us. . . . But place 
your feet on this stair of flaming red porphyry, and it shall lead, not as 
Dante dreamed, into a state of painful discipline (?) but into love and 
joy and peace in the Holy Ghost." — Louis Albert Banks. 



Defeats That are Victories. — (1) Bunker Hill Monument commem- 
orates a defeat, which for a long time was looked upon with chagrin 
and disappointment ; and yet that defeat was really the birth-throe of 
our country, and had more glorious results and more wide-reaching 
influence than most victories. (2) So the famous Thermopylae was a 
defeat, but has thrilled the ages because it was a moral victory. (3) A 
noble deed transfigures tlie place where it is performed, as Calvary, the 
place of execution, has become the center of the world's history and the 
world's salvation. 



Alcyone. — " As all the stars of heaven are said to be moving around 
the star Alcyone in the Pleiades, so all the Bible and all history move 



XIX:6-l8 ST. JOHN 505 

around the cross of Christ as their center. ' The cross 
of Jesus must ever remain the one bright center of all 
our hopes and all our songs. Nay, the cross of Jesus 
will be ' in the midst ' of heaven itself, the center to- 
wards which the circles of redeemed saints will bow, 
and round which the ceaseless ' Alleluia ' will roll ; for 
what is ' the Lamb in the midst of the throne ' (Rev. 
7 : 17) but the cross transfigured, and the Lamb etern- 
ally enthroned ? " — Burton. 

" The great central event in all history is the death of our Lord and 
Saviour, Jesus Christ. The centuries circle round the cross." — Dr. 
Collier, Great Events of History. 



A. i>. 30. 

April 7, from 
g a. m. to 
3 p. m. 
CALVARY. 
The Cruci- 
fixion. 



Motives from the Cross. — Tlie cross furnishes every possible motive 
for turning from sin, touching the heart with love, showing our danger, 
giving us hope of forgiveness and life, teaching the law of duty, which 
prefers death to failure or neglect. It shows the value of our souls, the 
value of salvation, and the worth of eternal life in heaven. 

The cross declares in " letters that can be read from the stars" God's 
love to man. 

The cost of salvation smites all indifference to religion. If Christ was 
willing to die that we might be saved, what ought not we to do? 



The Blood of Christ. — Sometimes we recoil from the thought of 
the blood of Christ so often referred to in the Bible,— there are those 
who would keep these things from their children, — yet we do not shrink 
from it in other tilings. We read even to children the story of the 
giant-killer. The fact is that there is no other way to express in lan- 
guage that all can understand, the highest degrees of heroism, courage, 
self-sacrifice and love. It is these qualities we see rather than the agony. 



Contrasts. — So many of Christ's sufferings are set forth as bringing 
to us corresponding benefits that we may take each one as having its 
counterpart in our salvation. He was sold, that we might be bought 
again, — that is, redeemed. He was denied, in order that He might 
confess us before His Father. He was bound, in order that He might 
bestow upon us true freedom — the freedom of sons. He was unjustly 
judged, in order that we might escape the severity of God's judgment. 
He was scourged, that by His stripes we might be healed. He was 
crowned with thorns, in order that we might receive a crown of glory. 
He bore the cross, in order that our poor bearings of the cross might be 
accounted suffering with Him. He was crucified, in order that through 
His grace we might crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts. He 
died that we might live. 



506 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIX : ig-22 



19. TT And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, 
JESUS OP NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. 

20. This title then read many of the Jews; for the place where Jesus was cruci- 
fied was nigh to the city ; and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. 

21. Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, the Kiug of the 
Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews. 

22. Pilate answered, What I have written I have written. 



Value of the Cross. — " According to all the consenting testimonies, 
the Lord of Glory went through death, to save us from it. He drank 
the cup of bitter woe, that we might quaff from heavenly chalices the 
wine of life. All faintness and gloom which His mysterious being could 
know, He folded round, He took within Him, that we might walk celes- 
tial streets with palm and harp, in robes of white. And only when this 
vast anguish was ended, this sacrificial death endured, was God, not 
pacified by it, not changed in character, or made more merciful than 
He would have been otherwise, but shown to be so holy while gracious, 
so purely, ineffably just, that the scoffer and the robber, the adulterer 
and the assassin turning to Him, might be forgiven." — R. S. S. 



The Atonement on the cross (1) enabled God to offer forgiveness, and 
yet to honor His law, so that men would be even more careful to keep 
the law than if they saw the wicked punished. (2) It proves to us that 
God is ready to forgive. (3) It shows the evil of sin that demands such 
a cost in order to be saved from it. (4) It shows that we cannot enter 
heaven unless we are cleansed from sin. (5) It proves the love of God 
to man. (6) It furnishes every possible motive for turning from sin, 
touching the heart with love, showing our danger, teaching the law of 
duty which dies rather than fail or neglect, giving us hope of forgive- 
ness and life. (7) It shows the value of our souls, to be worth such a 
price. (8) It shows the value of salvation, and the worth of eternal life 
in heaven. (9) All this will be in vain, unless we repent and believe. 

Reference. — See under 3 : 16 and 10 : 18. 



19. Pilate Wrote a Title. — Dr. Maclear, in the Cambridge Bible, 
supposes the inscriptions were as follows, the titles varying slightly in 
each language. 



John: 


Mark: 


Luke: 


tcrvsm "]bn nssn "wr 


O fiaiTi\evs tu>v 'lovdala>f. 


Rex Judceorum hie est. 


Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. 


The King of the Jews. 


This is thi King of the Jews. 



XIX : 23-24 ST. JOHN 507 



A. D. 30. 

April 7, from j 
Q a. m. to 
J p. m. 
CALVARY. 
Tlie Cruci- 
fixion. 



23. 1 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took 
his garments aud made four parts, to every soldier a part; and 
also his coat : now the coat was without seam, woven from the 
top throughout. 

24. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend 
it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the Scripture 
might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among 
them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things 
therefore the soliders did. 



Dr. Hovey thus reconciles all, making the real title to be, The King 
of the Jews, which is common to all. " Matthew says it was, Tliis is 
Jesus, The King of the Jews; Mark: The King of the Jews; Luke: 
This is The King of the Jews ; and John : Jesus of Nazareth The 
King of the Jews. It is admissible to suppose that the title in full read : 
Tins is Jesus of Nazareth, The King of the Jews. 

The Three Superscriptions. — " Such inscriptions in different lan- 
guages were not common. Julius Capitolinus, a biographer (a. d. 320), 
in his life of the third Gordian, says that the soldiers erected his 
tomb on the Persian borders, and added an epitaph (titulum) in Latin, 
Persian, Hebrew, and Egyptian characters, in order that it might be 
read by all. Hebrew was the national dialect, Latin the official, and 
Greek the common dialect. As the national Hebrew, King of the Jews 
was translated into Latin and Greek, so the inscription was prophetic 
that Christ should pass into civil administration and common speech: 
that the Hebrew Messiah should become equally the deliverer of Greek 
and Roman: that as Christ was the real center of the religious civilization 
of Judaism, so He should become the real center of the world's intel- 
lectual movement as represented by Greece, and of its legal and mater- 
ial civilization as represented by Rome. The three civilizations which 
had prepared the way for Christ thus concentrated at His cross. The 
cross is the real center of the world's history." — M. R. Vincent. 



"Thus to power (Latin), to culture (Greek), and to piety (Hebrew), 
was the sovereignty of Jesus declared, and it is still declared by means 
of such language. Power, culture, and piety, in their noblest forms, 
pay homage at the feet of Jesus." — Bp. J. R. Vincent, D. D. Thus in 
the chief tongues of men was proclaimed in jest what became a living 
truth, — that Jesus is king: the king to whom all nations and peoples 
should yield allegiance "He is a king with many crowns ; He is king 
in the religious sphere, the king of salvation, holiness, love ; He is king 
in the realm of culture ; the treasures of art. of song, of literature, of 
philosophy belong to Him ; He is to be king in the political sphere, in 



508 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIX: 25-32 



25. if Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister 
Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. 

26. When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he 
loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! 

27. Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that 
disciple took her into his own home. 

28. If After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the 
Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. 

29. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with 
vinegar, and put*£ upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. 

30. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished : and 
he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. 

31. The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should 
not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was a high 
day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken 
away. 

32. Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which 
was crucified with him. 

trade, commerce, and all the activities of men." And it is through the 
crucifixion that Jesus becomes king, and founds the kingdom, and draws 
the hearts of men to be His loyal subjects. 



In Three Languages. — " Like the Rosetta Stone in the British 
Museum, showing one inscription in three dialects ; like the inscribed 
rocks at Behistan, recording the fame of Darius Hystaspes in three 
forms of arrow-headed writing, so as to be understood by Assyrian, 
Median and Persian readers — the inscription on the cross was written 
in three languages, and these were the three keys to unlock all the 
languages living in the world. So, without knowing what he was 
doing, Pilate thus began the publication of Christ to all the world." — 
C. Stanford, D. D. 

23. Four Parts. — ' ' All the Synoptists relate the parting of the gar- 
ments. The four pieces to be divided would be, the head-gear, the 
sandals, the girdle, and the tallith, or square outer garment with 
fringes. Delitzsch thus describes the dress of our Lord : ' On His head 
He wore a white sudar, fastening under the chin and hanging down 
from the shoulders behind. Over the tunic which covered the body 
to the hands and feet, a blue tallith, with the blue and white fringes 
on the four ends so thrown over and gathered together that the gray, 
red-striped undergarment was scarcely noticeable, except when the 
sandal-shod feet came into view.' " — A Day in Capernaum. M. R. 
Vincent. 



XIX:33~4 2 ST - JOHN 509 



A. ». 30. 

April 7, from 

g a. m. to 

3 p. m. 

CALVARY. 

The Death 

and Burial 

of Jesus, 



33. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead 
already, they braka not bis legs : 

34. But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, 
and forthwith came there out blood and water. 

35. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true; 
and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. 

36. For these things were done, that the Scripture should be 
fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. 

37. And again another Scripture saith, They shall look on 
him whom they pierced. 

38. 1 And after this Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly 
for fear of the Jews, besought Pilite that he might take away the body of Jesus ; 
and Pilate gave Mm leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. 

39. And there came also Nicodemus, (which at the first came to Jesus by night), 
and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pound weight. 

40. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spi- 
ces, as the maunerof the Jews is to bury, 

41. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden ; and in the gar- 
den a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. 

42. There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the 
sepulchre was nigh at hand. 

27. Behold Thy Mother. — Note how Christianity represents women, 
and what it makes them. Mrs, Millicent Fawcett says that in Dickens' 
novels feminine virtue is nearly always undersized, easily melted to 
tears, and more or less idiotic ; and that Thackeray represented the best 
of women as subject to absurd jealousy. Dickens' " Mrs. Jellyby " has 
done a great deal of harm. Her eyes were always fixed on something 
far off, as if she saw Africa and Borrioboola Gha, while 
her children ran about neglected. That encouraged the Third Word 
mistake that a woman who had sufficient mental activity to from the 
be interested in philanthropy, literature, or politics, would Cross. 
not care also for her family. But Christianity makes wo- 
man better, more useful, more wise in her own home, and it makes her 
the nearest to His cross, watching even when the apostles had fled. 
Woman still is near the cross, ministering to her Saviour in the persons 
of the poor, the intemperate, the heathen. There was much truth in 
the humorous proposal, at a meeting of a great denomination, when it 
was seen how much legacies and the Woman's Board of Missions had 
done, to give a " vote of thanks to the dead men and the live women 
of the church." 



Library. — Compare the story told by Socrates of a poor man who, 
when dying, bequeathed his children to a friend. 



5io 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIX : 33-42 



28. I Thirst. — "I remember once talking with a German student 
who had served in the Franco-Prussian War. He was wounded in an 
engagement near Paris, and lay on the field unable to stir. He did not 
know exactly what was the nature of his wound, and he thought that 
he might be dying. The pain was intense ; the wounded 
and dying were groaning round about him ; the battle was Fifth Word 
still raging ; and shots were falling and tearing up the from the 
ground in all directions. But after a time one agony, he Cross, 
told me, began to swallow up all the rest, and soon made 
him forget his wound, his danger, and his neighbors. It was the agony 
of thirst. He would have given the world for a draught of water." 
The excruciating agonies of crucifixion were ' ' all gathered into one 
central current, in which they were lost and swallowed up — that of 
devouring thirst ; and it was this that drew from our Lord the fifth 
word." — Stalker. 



" The Saviour is still saying ' I thirst.' How and where? Listen ! 'I 
was thirsty and ye gave me drink.' ' Lord, when saw we Thee athirst, 
and gave thee drink ? ' ' Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of 
these My brethren, ye did it unto Me.' " — Scenes on Day of Crucifixion. 



■.:>>■ 



FATHER FORGIVE -l 
CRUCIFIXION 






x* 




DEATH 



*<> 



XIX : 3 3-42 



ST. TOHN 



511 



Pictures. — At the Foot of the Cross, Bartolommeo, 
Correggio ; Darkness Coming Over the Land, Geroine ; 
John Taking the Virgin Mary Home, Dobson, Plock- 
horst ; Tlie Descent from the Cross, Rubens (Antwerp), 
Angelico (Florence), Rembrandt (Munich), Volterra, 
Dore. 

" The best and grandest Pieta produced in the 17th 
century (about 1630), is undoubtedly that of Van Dyck 
in the Museum at Antwerp." 



A. B. 30. 

April 7, from 

Q a. m. to 

3 P. m. 

CALVARY. 

The Death 

and Burial 

of Jesus. 



512 



ST. JOHN 



XX: I 



CHAPTER XX. 



THE RESURRECTION. 



1. The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, 
when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone 
taken away from the sepulchre. 



A. ». 30. 

April 7, from 

g a. m. to 

3 p. m. 

CALVARY. 

The Three Days in the Tomb. — Jesus had lain in Tlie Cruci . 
the grave a part of each of three days — Friday after- fixion, 

noon, Saturday all day, and part of Sunday, beginning ►£« — ■{• 

at sunset Saturday night. He had repeatedly fore- 
told that He should rise on the third day, or after three days. It was 
the custom of the Jews to count a part of each day as a whole day. 
We see it illustrated in the chronology of the kings, by the way they 
counted the years of a reign. Thus a reign extending from December, 
1893, through 1894 into January, 1895, would be counted as three years, 
although only thirteen or fourteen months. It is so in the Old Testa- 
ment, in the Talmud, in Josephus, and in the Asyrian tablets. Days 
were counted in the same way. 



The Resurrection. — On the third day Jesus rose from the dead. 
Nothing is known of the manner of it ; but we are told that it was 
accompanied by a great earthquake ; and an angel, whose countenance 
was like lightning, and whose raiment was white as snow, came and 
rolled away the stone from the door of the sepulchre. 

Of many of God's doings we know the fact, but we do not know how 
it became a fact. We know the fact of living beings, but we do not 
know how they came to be alive. We see a tree. It is an undoubted 
fact ; but we do not know what there was in the seed to produce the 
tree. 



The strife is o'er, the battle done ; 

The victory of life is won ; 

The song of triumph has begun." 



"*Tis the spring of souls to-day ; 
Christ hath burst his prison, 
And from three days' sleep in death, 
As the sun, hath risen." 



XX : i ST. JOHN 513 



Pictures. — Tlie Resurrection, Albrecht Diirer (in <i 
the "Greater Passion"), Mautegna {Nat. Gallery, 
London), Naack, Fra. Bartolommeo {Pitti Palace, 
Florence), Luca della Robbia, Perugino {Vatican), 
Raphael (Vatican), Rembrandt {Munich) ; TJie Angel at 
the Sepulchre, Dore. There is an interesting picture 
of the Resurrection in the Cathedral at Bordeaux. 

The Three Marys at the Tomb, Plockhorst, Ary 
Scheffer ; Touch Me Not, Titian, Schonherr ; Walk to 
Emmaus, Plockhorst Dore, Hofman ; Supper at Emmaus, Paul Ver- 
onese, Carpaccio ; Jesus and St. T/iomas, Rubens ; Tlie Ascension 
Dore, Paechiarotto ; Mount of Olives. 



A. D. 30. 

April 9, Sun- 
day Morning. 
JERUSALEM. 
The Resur- 
rection of 
Jesus. 



Proofs of the Resurrection. — Before any one of the Gospels was 
written, Paul had written four of his Epistles, "one to the Galatians, 
written A. D. 55 ; two to the Corinthians, A. D. 56 ; and one to the 
Romans, A. D, 59. [Farrar puts them all in 57 and 58 A. D. — Ed. The 
opinion of scholars, Christian and infidel, that these are authentic and 
that we are in possession of genuine copies is unanimous." "The latest 
was written within twenty-nine years of the death of Jesus ; the earliest, 
still nearer to that event. It is as if any American who had been 
engaged in the civil war should, in 1891 give his memory of the affairs 
of this nation in the year 186i, the writer being now about fifty years 
of age, in the full possession of his ripened faculties and powers. Such 
was Paul. He was at least twenty- two years old when Jesus of Naza- 
reth was crucified." From his writings we learn that there was a large 
number of people who differed about many things, "yet as to the resur- 
rection of the body of Jesus they were perfectly unanimous, without a 
dissenting voice, without the suggestion of a suspicion of any contrary 
theory ; that, after more than a quarter of a century, they were as unani- 
mous in their belief that Jesus Christ had been killed and had risen from 
the dead as the American people to-day are that Abraham Lincoln was 
inaugurated president of the United States in March of 1861, and mur- 
dered in April, 1865. For twenty years Paul had found this unanimity 
everywhere. He himself had never doubted the fact, had always 
declared it, and about the twenty- eighth anniversary of the event he 
wrote to the Corinthians that there were over two hundred and fifty 
persons then living who had seen Jesus after His resurrection, and that 
he himself was one of them, and that they rested the whole of Christi- 
anity on the fact. " — Dr. Deems, 
33 



5 14 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 

Our Lord's Appearances After His Resurrection. 



XX: I 



Order. 


Time. 


To Whom. 


Where. 


Record. 


1 


Sunday, April 9. 
Early in the 
morning. 


To Mary Magdalene 


Near the sepul- 
chre at Jeru- 
salem 


Mark 16 : 9 ; 
John 20 ; 11-18 


2 


Sunday morning 


To the women re- 
turning from the 
sepulchre 


Near Jerusa- 
lem 


Matt. 28 : 9, 10 


3 


Sunday 


To Simon Peter 
alone 


Near Jerusa- 
lem 


Luke 24:34 


4 


Sunday afternoon 


To two disciples 
going to Emmaus 


Between Jeru- 
salem and 
Emmaus, 
and at Em- 
maus 


Luke 24 ; 13-31 


5 


Sunday evening 


To the apostles, ex- 
cepting Thomas 


Jerusalem 


John 20 : 19-25 


6 


Sunday evening, 
April 16 


To the apostles, 
Thomas being pres- 
ent 


Jerusalem 


John 20 : 26-29 


7 


Last of April or 
first of May 


To seven disciples 
fishing 


Sea of Galilee 


John 21 : 1-13 


8 


Last of April or 
first of May 


To the eleven dis- 
ciples on a moun- 
tain 


Galilee 


Matt. 28 : 16-20. 


9 


Last of April or 
first of May 


To above five hun- 
dred brethren at 
once 


Galilee 


1 Cor. 15 : 6 


10 


May 


To James only 


Jerusalem 
probably 


1 Cor. 15 : 7 


11 


Thursday, May 
18 


To all the apostles 
at His ascension 


Mount of 
Olives, near 
Bethany 


Luke 24 : 50-51 
Acts 1 : 6-12 



Christ is Risen. — Easter Day. — " We read that in the cities of Rus- 
sia, at the beginning of every Easter day, when the sun is just rising, men 
and women go about the streets greeting each other with the information 
" Christ is risen." Every man knows it. But this is an illustration of how 



XX: I ST. JOHN 515 



a man. when his heart is full of a thing, wants to tell 
it to his brethreD. He does not care if the brother 
knows it already. He goes and tells it to him again. 
And so, when the truth of Christ's Gospel shall come 
so home to each and every one of us that all men shall 
be filled with the glad intelligence, and tell the story 
of how men are living in the freedom of their Hea- 
venly Father, it shall not be needful to have a revival 
of religion.'' — Phillips Brooks. 



A. D. 30. 

April q, Sun- 
day Morning. 

JERUSALEM. 

The Resur- 
rection of 
Jesus. 



Tennyson's Idyls of the King. — Gareth and Lynette. — " The 
Poet Laureate, in his Gareth and Lynette, one of the Idyls of the King, 
draws a wonderful picture of the warfare of human life. Gareth is a 
king's son, who in disguise has served as scullion in the king's kitchen, 
until Arthur sends him forth to do battle for the liberation of an 
imprisoned lady, typical of the human soul. He encounters Morning, 
Noon, and Night, the succession of armed warriors who guard the 
castle. Then at last he faces Death in the form of a dreadful being 
clad in black armor, with a grinning skull as its crest. This foe also he 
unhorses, and cleaves the black helmet, only to liberate a smiling and 
beautiful boy, who pleads that the other champions have persuaded 
him to don this dreadful disguise of terror. Death faced, overcome, 
forced to disclose himself, proves no dreadful specter, but a form of 
blooming youth." — Sunday School Times. 



The Setting Sun A Prelude to the Rising. — ' « When I go down to 
the grave I can say, like so many others, ' I have finished my day's 
work ; ' but I cannot say, ' I have finished my life.' My day's work will 
begin again the next morning. The tomb is not a blind alley, it is a 
thoroughfare. It closes in the twilight, to open with the dawn ! " — 
Victor Hugo. 

Ld?e Only a Commencement. — "Theodore Monod said he would like 
the epitaph on his tombstone to be, Here endeth the First Lesson." — 
Smiles. 



The Damascus Tunnel. — "In Damascus there is a long, dark, 
narrow lane, ending in a tunnel. It has been there for ages. The 
traveler descends and passes through ; but on the other side he emerges 
into the courtyard of an Oriental palace, flashing with color and sun- 
light. This is a figure of a believer's death. Christ is called * the first- 
born from the dead,' and dying to the Christian is but being born out 



5 16 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XX : I 

of the darkness and limitations of earth, into the glorious light and 
liberty of heaven." — F. B. Meyer. 

The Glacier Stream, and the Light Beyond. — The first time I 
heard Newman Hall preach, he used the following illustration which I 
here quote in the words of. a writer in the Sunday School Times : 

" A chamois hunter of the Alps climbed one of the mountain sides in 
pursuit of his game ; out of the vale of Chamouni up the Mer de Glace, 
up among the snows of the mountain beyond. Suddenly the snow gave 
way beneath him, and he fell down, down, several hundred feet. He was 
not harmed, but as he arose and looked up he saw that wall of ice reared 
on each side towards the sky, and the blue light of heaven alone looked 
down upon him. How hopeless ! Better that he had died at once than 
in tliat tomb and in a slow death. But just at his footsteps, — ran on 
the thread of a stream. A thought struck his mind. Streams some- 
times flaw from out the glaciers of the Alps, bursting from their base 
into the valley beyond. He thought, ' I will follow that little thread 
of clear snow-water ;' and so while it broadened and deepened he fol- 
lowed on, climbing over the ice, until he at last came to the broadened 
pool into which the stream sank away. The water was dark and 
swirled around and around, and sank in the center, and the wall on the 
other side reared itself before him, and all was lost. The thread of 
hope seemed extinguished in that dark pool. ' But no,' he says, ' there 
is one chance yet.' He kneeled upon the snow ; he cast beside him all 
his trappings, and lifted his heart to the God of the eternal mountains. 
He plunged into the pool. There was a moment of darkness, uncon- 
sciousness, and then he was thrown upon the bosom of the stream, in 
the midst of the singing birds and the green hills and fields and bloom- 
ing flowers of Chamouni. 

So shall it be with us when our footsteps trend to the dark pool. 
It shall be but a moment's plunge into the icy depth, a moment's 
unconsciousness, it may be, and then into the vale whose flowers are 
more fragrant, whose fields are brighter than any Chamouni, amid the 
songs of the angels to the welcoming hands of God, our spirits shall 
joyfully go." 



In the heathen fable Orpheus goes down, lyre in hand, to the Plu- 
tonic realm, to bring back again to life and love the lost Eurydice ; but 
Jesus, in His vicarious sufferings, goes down to hell itself, that He may 
win back from their sins and bear in triumph to the upper heavens a 
lost humanity. 



LIBRARY. — Discussions of immortality from various standpoints; 
Plato's Fhcedo; Cicero's De Senectule ; Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet's 



XX: 2-; ST. JOHN 517 



A. ». 30. 

April q, Sztn- 
day Morning. 
JERUSALEM. 
Tlie Resur- 
rection of 
Jesus. 



2. Then she runneth, and cotneth to Simon Peter, and to the 
other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They 
have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know 
not where they have laid him. 

3. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and 
came to the sepulchre. 

4. So they ran both together: and the other disciple did 
outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. 

5. And he stooping down, and lookiuy in, saw the linen 
clothes lying; yet went he not in. 

6. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into tha sepulchre, and 
seeth the linen clothes lie, 

7. And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but 
wrapped together in a place by itself. 

soliloquy in the castle of Elsinore ; and Measure for Measure, Claudio's 
address to his sister Isabella ; Stewart and Tait's Unseen Universe ; 
Wordsworth's Poems, "Intimations of Immortality ; " Longfellow's 
Poems, "Resignation;" Mrs. Gatty's Parables from Nature; a book- 
let poem, The story of Easter t as told by St. John, is very good. 



Seeth the Stone Taken Away. — The entrance was protected by 
a large stone, sometimes round, like a large millstone, rolled in front of 
the opening. As they went, the women wondered who would roll 
away the stone for them, since to cover so large an opening it must 
have required two or three men to move it. But when they arrived at 
the tomb the angel had already rolled the stone away. 



" The lesson is very beautiful. We have only to go on in faithful 
obedience, doing each day our simple duty and never worrying about 
the difficulties that may lie in our path An unseen helper ever goes 
on before us and prepares the way for us." — J. R. Miller, Westminster 
Teacher. For instance (1) the stone is rolled away from the tomb of 
death by the resurrection and the life. (2) The obstacles in the way of 
our salvation — our hard hearts, our sins, the opposition of friends, the 
reluctance to do hard duties — are removed from those who go forward. 
(3) Doctrinal difficulties are removed by doing every duty as it comes to 
us. Our path is often like a winding way through a forest and among 
the hills. We can see but a little distance, and cannot know beforehand 
where the path leads, but when we come to the end of what we can see, 
a further path opens up to us. (4) The same is true of the progress of 
Christianity, of real reforms, of business, of every line of duty. 



518 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XX: 8— 1 5 



S. Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, aud 
he saw, and helieved. 

9. For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise again from the 
dead. 

10. Theu the disciples went away again unto their own home. 

11. II But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she 
stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, 

12. And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, aud the other at 
the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. 

13. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, 
Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. 

14. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, aud saw Jesus standing, 
and knew not that it was Jesus. 

15. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, 
supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him 
hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. 



Library.— The Poem, " Three Women Crept at Break of Day." See 
Suygestive Illustrations on Matthew. 



Appearing First to Women. — It is a matter of no little interest that 
the first appearances of Jesus were not to the apostles, but to women. 
(1) Probably because they " loved much," and showed their love by 
going earliest to the sepulchre. The first, the highest, the best reve- 
lations of God are to love. (2) It was typical of the changed position 
which the gospel was to bestow upon woman. Much as the gospel has 
done for man, it has done still more for woman. (3) It was typical of 
her work in the church, as a messenger of Christ. 

" Not she with traitorous kiss her Master stung ; 
Not she denied Him with unfaithful tongue ; 
She when apostles fled could danger brave, 
Last at His cross and earliest at His grave." — Mrs. Browning. 



" He appeared to Mary : Love is immortal. He appeared to the other 
women : Immortal Love honors by giving service. He appeared to 
Peter : Immortal Love forgives. He appeared to the disciples on the 
way to Emmaus : Immortal Love sympathizes. He appeared to Thomas, 
the honest doubter : Immortal Love is tenderly and instructively sym- 
pathetic. To the grief of love, of perplexity, of penitence, and of 
doubt, Immortal Love comes up from the grave and pauses to give com- 
fort before ascending into heaven." — Dr. C. Deems. 



XX: 8-15 ST. JOHN 519 



2. We Know Not Where They Have Laid Him. — >%> — — ■*■ 

" With myrrh and with aloes, 
We balmed and we bathed Him, 
Loyally, lovingly, 
Tenderly swathed Him ; 



A. D. 30. 

April 9, Sun- 
day Morning. 
JERUSALEM. 
Tlie Resur- 
rection of 
Jesus. 



" With cerecloth and band 
For the grave we arrayed Him ; 
But oh, He is gone 
From the place where we laid Him." 

— Goethe's Faust. 

7. Wrapped Together, IvTcrvXi-yiu'vov; — "Rev., much better, rolled 
up. The orderly arrangement of everything in the tomb marks the 
absence of haste and precipitation in the awakening and rising from the 
dead." — 31. R. Vincent. 



11. As She Wept, She Stooped Down. — 

" Love makes the coward spirit brave 
And nerves the feeble arm." 



13. Woman, Why Weepest Thou?— "Mary, weeping before the 
empty tomb, reappears in each generation of Christians. She is the 
type of those who have a genuine love of religion, but who, from what- 
ever cause and in various ways, are for a time, at any rate, disap- 
pointed." They see the tomb but not the Saviour. They look into 
the old forms and associations of youth. "What wonder if some of 
those associations of a boyish mind have been disturbed; if some mis- 
apprehensions have been corrected, if the relations between different 
fields of thought have been made clearer, during the interval ? What 
wonder if some of this activity has resulted in what looks like disloca- 
tion or destruction, and caused perplexity ? Depend on it, the body of 
Jesus is not lost. Do not despair because you find it no longer amid 
the old conditions, the grave-clothes, etc , of a bygone time. Distin- 
guish between the unchanging, indestructible object of the religious 
life of the soul of man, and the ever-shifting moods of human thought 
and feeling that circle round Him, as the ages pass. Be as patient and 
hopeful as Mary, and your share in Mary's tears will surely be followed 
by Mary's joy. You will recover for your Bible, prayers, communions, 
much more than their old meaning. You will have exchanged Jesus 
in the tomb for Jesus in the garden." — Canon Liddon. 



520 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XX:l6-20 

16. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni ; 
which is to say, Master. 

17. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: 
but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your 
Father; and to my God and your God. 

18. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and 
that he had spoken these things unto her. 

19. IF Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the 
doors were shut where tha disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came. 
Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 

20. And when he had so said, he shewed unto them Ms hands and his side. Then 
were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. 

I Know Not Where They Have Laid Him. — This has been applied 
to those who write against the divinity of Christ, and have lessened His 
power and glory as a divine Saviour. "They have taken away my 
Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him. " 



14. And Knew Not that it Was Jesus. — Why did she not recog- 
nize Him at first 9 (1) She had her eyes dimmed with tears, and (2) her 
mind occupied and excited with other thoughts; besides, (3) she was 
not at all expecting to see Him alive; (4) His garments certainly must 
have been changed, as the soldiers had those He was accustomed to 
wear; (5) she may not have looked up to His face, perhaps hardly looked 
at all ; (6) the long agony on the cross must have made some difference 
in His appearance. 

I remember hearing a friend describe the appearance of a man who 
was rescued from drowning when he rose to the surface the third and 
last time. Although living under the same roof, and intimately 
acquainted with him, my friend did not recognize him until told who 
he was. In addition to the ghastly paleness of his face, it wore the 
imprint of those five minutes of terror, and he looked full twenty years 
older, his haggard, ghastly features distorted by horror. Could the 
body of Jesus pass unscathed through the terrible ordeal of crucifixion ? 
Had the physical suffering, the cruel spear and nails, the death agony, 
for three days a rigid corpse, a body without the vital essence, the 
nervous fluid, so altered that sad, beautiful face, that His nearest friends 
did not recognize Him, fulfilling the prophecy, " His visage was marred 
more than any man's and His form more than the sons of men?" — TJie 
Advance. 

Not long ago I was visiting my somewhat aged father, and just at 
twilight I came up with him walking with another gentleman, and I 
joined in the conversation. Just as their paths parted, my father whis- 



XX: 21 -31 ST. JOHN 521 



A. ». 30. 

April 9, Sun- 
day Morning. 
JERUSALEM. 
Tlie Resur- 
rection of 
Jesus. 



21. Then said Jesus to theni agaiu, Peace be unto you; as 
my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 

22. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and 
saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 

23. Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them : 
and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained. 

24. U But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was 
not with them when Jesus came. 

25. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he 
said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my 
finger into the priut of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not 
believe. 

26. I And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them ; 
then came Jesns, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be 
unto you. 

27. Then saith be to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and 
reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side; and he not faithless, but 
believing. 

28. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. 

29. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed ; 
blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. 

30. I And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which 
are not written in this book: 

31. But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son 
of God ; and that believing ye might have life through his name. 



pered to him, "Who is that gentleman who has been walking with 
us ?" He did not recognize his own son, not expecting him, nor taking 
particular notice. I immediately thought of Mary, and of the two 
disciples going to Eminaus. 



17. Touch Me Not (\lx\ \lov airrov). — " The verb, primarily, means to 
fasten to. Hence it implies here, not a mere momentary touch, but 
a clinging to, Mary thought that the old relations between her Lord 
and herself were to be renewed ; that the old intercourse, by means of 
sight, sound, and touch, would go on as before. Christ says, • The time 
for this kind of intercourse is over. Henceforth your communion with 
Me will be by faith through the Spirit. This communion will become 
possible through My ascending to the Father.'" — M. R. Vincent, in 
Word Studies. 



24. Thomas Was Not With Them. —Note how much Thomas missed 
by being absent from this prayer- meeting. 



522 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XX:2I~3I 

25. Except I Shall See. — Thomas was a realist rather than a doubter, 
and this expression indicates the necessity of proof and the kind of 
proof he required, that of facts. 



Two Kinds of Doubters. — " Nothing more perfectly reveals the 
moral character of a doubter than the instinctive tendencies of his mind 
during his mental conflicts. Christian and Pliable both fell into the 
Slough of Despond. Pliable struggled to the side nearest the City of 
Destruction, but Christian with infinite toil reached the side nearest the 
Celestial City."— IF. J. Cooke. 

Library. — Tennyson's In Memoriam, ' ' There lives more faith in 
honest doubt." 

27. Reach Hither Thy Finger. — " Here is One who has filled the 
world with His name and influence ; who never published a line, and yet 
has set all the world publishing books about Him ; who never led an 
army, and yet has overrun the four quarters of the world ; who never 
entered a palace, and yet exercises a sovereignty that kings might well 
envy. Now, has not He a right to say something as to the way His 
claims shall be treated ? This is what he says, ' Reach hither thy finger,' 
etc. Some one says, ' I acknowledge Jesus Christ to be the chief of the 
sons of men.' That will not do. 'Reach hither thy finger, and behold 
my hand.' The hand that labored, that healed, that blessed the little 
children, that rolled back the gates of death. Another says, ' I see that 
Jesus Christ wields a vast influence over many hearts and over all the 
world, and with that influence I have no intention of interfering.' That 
will not do. * Reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side ! into 
the love- wound ; the fountain of this world's purity ; the only place 
where salvation can be found. Another says, ' I shall remain neutral 
for a while ; there can be no harm to that.' That will not do. ' Be not,' 
or literally ' Become not unbelieving, but believing.' Every man is 
becoming something more and more each day. The matter will not 
remain in balance. Consciously or unconsciously, it will ever grow 
to firmer faith or deeper unbelief. Therefore press the matter to settle- 
ment." — A. Raleigh, D. D. 



Thrust It into My Side. — Compare the faith touch of the woman 
who touched Jesus in the throng and was healed. Mat. 9: 20. 



Leoend of Thomas. — There is a quaint legend which tells how, some 
years after the event, St. Thomas was again troubled with agonizing 
doubts as to our Lord's resurrection. He sought the apostles, and began 
to pour his soul's troubles into their ears. But first one, then the other, 



XX:2i-3i 



ST. JOHN 



S23 



A. D. 30. 

April 9, Sun- 
day I\Iorning. 
JERUSALEM. 
The Resur- 
rection of 
Jesus. 



looked at him in astonishment, and told the unhappy 
doubter that he was sorry for him, but really he had 
so much to do he had no time to listen to his tale. 
Then he was fain to impart his woes to some devout 
women. But they, as busy as Dorcas, and in like 
employment, soon made him understand that they 
had no leisure for such thoughts as these. At last it 
dawned upon him that perhaps it was because they 
were so busy that they were free from the doubts by which he was 
tortured. He took the hint ; he went to Parthia, occupied himself in 
preaching Christ's Gospel, and was never troubled with doubts any 
more. 
Reference. —See on vii: 17, "The way out of doubt." 



524 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 



XXI : 1-6 



CHAPTER XXI. 



LOVEST THOU ME. 



1. After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the dis- 
ciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed he him- 
self. 

2. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called 
Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of 
Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. 

3. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say 
unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered 
into a ship immediately ; and that night they caught nothing. 

4. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the 
shore : but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. 

5. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered 
him, No. 

6. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall 
find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multi- 
tude of fishes. 



A. ». 30. 

April-May. 

SEA OF 
GALILEE. 

Jesus 
Appears 
to Seven 

of His 
Disciples 

by the 
Sea. 



1. Sea of Tiberias. — 

" O Galilee, sweet Galilee, 



Where Jesus loved so much to be ; 
O Galilee, blue Galilee, 

Come sing thy song again to me." 



3. I Go a Fishing. — Entered into a Ship. — Macdonald in one of 
his books calls attention to the blessings that come to the sorrowing 
soul from the necessity of work. 



" Reflect in how precarious a position the whole future of the world 
is. That boat carries the earthly hope of the church ; and as we weigh 
the feelings of the men that are in it, what we see chiefly is how easily 
the whole of Christianity might here have broken short off, and never 
have been heard of, supposing it to have depended for its propagation 
solely on the disciples." — Marcus Dods. But God cares for His own. 
" Everv man is immortal till his work is done." 



That Night They Caught Nothing. — "The seven disciples toiled 
all night where blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the 



XXI: 7 ST. JOHN 525 



7. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, 
It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the 
Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, (for he was naked), 
and did cast himself into the sea. 



A.». 30. 

April-May. 

SEA OF 
GALILEE. 

Jesus 

Appears 

to Seven 

of His 

Diseiples 

by tlie 

Sea. 



angels." But not a fish came into their nets. They 
did not cease their efforts, but continued till the morn- 
ing dawned. This is a picture of what Christian 
workers must often experience. The history of mis- j, 
sions is full of examples. Most great reformers know 
what it means. We pray for fruit and plant the seed, but it is years 
before we reach the harvest. We cultivate the century plant, but it is 
many years before we see the first blossom. The foundations of the 
lighthouse are being laid under water for many months before the first 
stone appears above the surface. 

5. Children, Have Ye Any Meat?— " k'x€is ti, have you anything, is 
the usual question addressed by a bystander to those employed in fish- 
ing or bird-catching. Equivalent to have you had any sport ? See 
Aristophanes, ' Clouds,' 731." — M. R. Vincent. 



6. Cast the Net on the Right Side. — Jesus would remind the dis- 
ciples of the time when, three years before this, some of them were fish- 
ing in the same lake, and he had called them t(/Becoine fishers of men 
(Luke 5 : 1-11 ; Matt. 4 : 19). They then learned (1) that if men are to 
be brought into the kingdom, they must be sought for. 
Fish do not come of themselves to our tables. (2) They Fishers 
must be sought patiently, carefully. (3) They can better be of Men. 
attracted than driven. (4) The right bait at the right sea- 
son, rightly prepared and rightly presented, is essential to success. The 
work of the fisher is a work of art and skill rather than force. (5) Men 
catch fish for their own health and pleasure ; but they catch men for 
the good of those caught, that they may have eternal life. 

Now they are to learn other lessons in the same school. (1) That 
Jesus cared for their support, and is able all through their lives to give 
them a livelihood . (2) " That the higher duty glorifies, instead of degrad- 
ing the lower ; that every business in which men can be rightly engaged 
is a calling and a ministry." — Hutchinson. (3) That with- 
out Jesus they can do nothing. (4) That sometimes they The New 
must wait and toil without visible success for a time, but Lesson, 
that Jesus sees and knows. (5) That through faith and 
obedience, guided by Him, they may expect marvelous success, as was 
abundantly exemplified not many weeks later on the day of Pentecost. 



526 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXI : 8-l6 

8. And the other disciples came iu a little ship, (for they were not far from land, 
but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes. 

9. As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish 
laid thereon, and bread. 

10. Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. 

11. Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, a 
hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net 
broken. 

12. Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask 
him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord. 

13. Jesus then coraeth, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. 

14. This is now the third time that Jesas shewed himself to his disciples, after 
that he was risen from the dead. 

15. IF So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, 
lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest 
that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. 

16. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? 
He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, 
Feed my sheep. 

" For His grace and love are such 
Thou canst never ask too much." 



The fish hidden long in "the many waters " of the world ''depicts 
the church invisible ; " " the breaking nets are imperfections and loss." 
" The Christian preacher, as the fisher of men, draws forth freely for 
God by means of the hook of the life-giving Word, from the deep 
and bitter waves of this world, rather to give them new life than to 
destroy them . " — St. Paulinus of Nola. 

" Fisher of men, the blest, 
Out of the world's unrest. 

Out of sin's troubled sea, 
Taking us, Lord, to thee." 






The Multitude of Fishes. — " The thickness of the shoals of fish in 
the Lake of Gennesaret is almost incredible to any one who has not 
witnessed them. They often cover an area of more than an acre ; and 
when the fish move slowly forward in a mass, and are rising out of the 
water, they are packed so close together that it appears as if a heavy 
rain were beating down on the surface of the water." — Tristram, Tlie 
Natural History of the Bible, p. 285. The same phenomena may be 
observed in the mackerel fishing off the coast of New England, and 



Library. — Fishing Jimmy. 



XXI : 8-l6 ST. JOHN 527 

"reminds one of what may be frequently seen in 

Bodensee, or the Lake of Constance." A. ». 30. 

April-May. 
BY SEA OF 
GALILEE. 
Restora- 
tion of 

15. Simon Peter.— The prophecy that Simon should 
become Peter is in the process of fulfilment. He is 
first Simon, then Simon Peter, and in the Acts he is 
Peter only. " There is the making of an apostle in him, those granitic 
materials of strength and sparkle which only need the touch of hea- 
venly fire upon them, and the cooling of heavenly winds, to become 
set and endurant, a living stone of the new temple. And so, like 
the scholar with the ' turned ' lesson, Simon is sent back to Galilee, to 
receive a new commission in place of the one he has forfeited and 
lost. It is a repeat in the music of his life, a sort of da capo move- 
ment, with the same accessories ; the same lake shore ; the same 
weathered boat and nets ; the same companions with three others 
added, and the same vain toiling all the night. So far the story is but 
a repetition of the older scene, now three years ago ; but here the 
unison ends and the ' parts ' come in variations which are still har- 
monies with new and deeper meaning." — Dr. Henry Burton, D. D. 



The Questioning of Peter. — "The chosen vessel of the Lord, 
moulded though it has been by the Master's hand, is alas ! marred ; but 
a broken 

' Vase of chilling tears, 
That grief hath shaken into frost.' " 



"Is it simply a coincidence, or is it something more, that the only 
other ' fire of coals ' mentioned in the New Testament is in St. John 
xviii. 18, where we read of one in the palace yard, at which Peter stood 
and warmed himself? That 'fire of coals' lighted him on his down- 
ward path ; all his professions and promises were thrown into it, to 
disappear like the crackling of thorns or the vapor of smoke : out of 
that ' fire of coals 'the viper crept which fastened on his heart, and 
which, alas ! he had not the courage to throw off, but which stung him 
into a moral paralysis and insensibility. And now Jesus calls him to 
sit down at His ' fire of coals ' on the sands, and to bring of the fish they 
have now caught ; for what they saw broiling on the fire was but one 
small fish (St. John seems to emphasize this, drawing a marked distinc- 
tion between the 'great fishes' of ver. 11 and the diminutive word of 



528 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXI : 8-l6 

ver. 9), and near the fire one loaf of bread. It is as if Jesus would 
reproduce the scene of that sad night — at least as far as the altered sur- 
roundings would allow." — Henry Burton, D. D. 



Lovest Thou Me. — "There are some delicate shades of meaning in the 
Greek, which do not appear in our English translation, and which it is 
difficult to make clear in any translation. Jesus uses the word love 
three times in His questions, and Peter uses it three times in his answers. 
But in the original, the word for love (d-yairdw) which Jesus uses in His 
first two questions is a different word from that which Peter uses for 
love (<j>i\€(o) in all his answers. In the third asking Jesus uses Peter's 
word. The word which Christ uses in His question, Lovest thou me ? 
(dYairdco) signifies if not the higher, at least the more thoughtful and rev- 
erential affection, founded on an intelligent estimate of character, and 
accompanied by a deliberate and well-considered choice. Peter's I love 
thee represents rather the personal, instinctive love, the activity of feel- 
ing, rather than of will, the affection which, being spontaneous and 
instinctive, gives no account of itself, and no reason for its existence. 
We are bid in the New Testament to exercise the first form of love 
(dYcnrdtt) towards God, but never the second ; while the Father is said 
to exercise both forms towards His own Son. Two different Greek 
words are also rendered indiscriminately feed. To indicate the differ- 
ence, I have rendered one by the rare but indispensable verb shepherd. 
Finally, three words are used to represent the flock which Christ com- 
mends to Peter's care — lewibts (dpvia), sheep (irp6|3aTa), and little sheep 
(irpopdna) (the latter perhaps a term of special affection)." —Abbott. 
The whole may be brought before us in one view by the following from 

Schaff : 

Questions. Answers. Commands. 

1. Lovest thou me more than these ? I dearly love thee. Feed my lambs. 

2. Lovest thou me ? I dearly love thee. Shepherd my sheep. 

3. Dost thou love me dearly ? I dearly love thee. Feed my sheeplings, 



Reference. — See on v : 20, M. R. Vincent's view of <|>i\€<«> d-yairdw. 



Feed My Lambs. — " Children are the preface to the book of life." 
" An adult converted is a unit ; a child is a multiplication table." Dr. 
Tyng used to say that if the choice lay between one child or two adults, 
lie would always decide for the child. The Star of Bethlehem for the 
church and the world, stands over the cradle, the school-house, and the 
Sunday school. 

Library. — Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies. 



XXI: I /-I9 ST. JOHN 529 



A. D. 30. 

April-May. 
BY SEA OF 
GALILEE. 
Restora- 
tion of 
Peter. 



IT. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son, of Jonas, 
lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him 
the third time, Lovest thou me ? And he said unto him, Lord, 
thou knowest all things ; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus 
saith unto liim, Feed my sheep. 

18. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, 
thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest : 
but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, 
and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou 
wouldest not. 

19. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when 
he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me. 

The Question of Jesus, lovest thou me, was both the test and the 
cure of Peter ; like the necessity of labor laid upon man after the fall, 
which was the best thing possible for fallen man, not only a punishment 
but a cure. 



" Love is like the ringing of bells ; they sound sweetly while they are 
chiming ; but after all it is hard work to ring them.' ? — H. W. Beecher. 



18. Thou Shalt Stretch Forth Thy Hands. — This was one proof 
of Peter's restoration. "You said you were ready to go both to prison 
and to death, for my sake. You failed once, but you will not fail again. 
You shall have the same test once more, but instead of denying your 
Lord, you will glorify him." 

Peter's Repentance. — "It is a touching and beautiful tradition, 
true to the sincerity of Peter's repentance, if not as a historical reality, 
that, all his life long, the remembrance of this night never left him, and 
that, morning by morning, he rose at the hour when the look of his 
Master had entered his soul, to pray once more for pardon." — Geikie. 

" If I could paint a portrait of Peter, I would write on every hair of 
his head, forgiveness of sins.'' — Luther. Peter was permanently 
changed for the better by his experience, and he uses this experience in 
urging others to escape the snare into which he had fallen (1 Pet. 3 : 15; 
5: 6-10). 

" St. Augustine ! well hast thou said 
That of our vices we can frame 
A ladder, if we will but tread 
Beneath our feet each deed of shame ! " — Longfellow. 
34 



530 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXI : 20-25 



20. Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following ; 
which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betray eth 
thee? 

21. Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do ? 

22. Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? 
follow thou me. 

23. Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should 
not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die ; but, If I will that he tarry 
till I come, what is that to thee? 

24. This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: 
and we know that his testimony is true. 

25. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they 
should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain 
the books that should be written. Amen. 

The Change in Peter. — "Ina gallery in Europe there hang, side by- 
side, Rembrandt's first picture, a simple sketch, imperfect and faulty, 
and his great masterpiece, which all men admire. So in the two names, 
Simon and Peter, we have first the rude fisherman who came to Jesus 
that day, the man as he was before Jesus began His work on him ; and 
second, the man as he became during the years when the friendship of 
Jesus had warmed his heart and enriched his life. " — J. B. Miller, in 
Personal Friendships of Jesus. 



The Blotting Out of Peter's Sin. — " As I was practicing getting 
a focus, with the camera, from my window, I had just got it arranged 
to take in a part of the next-door neighbor's garden, — a beautiful spot, 
with a trellis loaded with grapes in the center of the picture. 

"While I had my head under the cloth at the back of the camera, I 
saw two figures come into that part of the garden, and begin tearing 
down grapes from the trellis. 

" I knew the family next door was out of town, and I quickly con- 
cluded that the figures were thieves, who were stealing the grapes ; and 
if I could catch a photograph of them, I could identify them. 

" So, without stopping to give another look at them, I quickly popped 
in a plate-holder, and then, in a wink, I had 'em ! And not a moment 
too soon, either ; for they heard the slight noise I made with the 
camera, and ran away before I could get a good look at them. How- 
ever, I felt sure I had a good picture of them; but before I developed it, 
the white light got to it, and blotted out the whole thing. 

"Now, do you know, boys, that little incident made clearer to me 
something in the Bible that used to bo very hard for me to understand 
when I was a child like you, so I think I will tell you about it. 



XXI 120-25 ST. JOHN 531 



A. D. 30. 

April-May. 
BY SEA OF 
GALILEE. 

Restora- 
tion of 
Peter. 



" It seems to nie an unforgiven sin in one's heart is ►J* 
just like the picture on the sensitized plate in the 
camera ; it may not be apparent, but it is there, and 
unless we let the white light of Christ's forgiving love 
shine into our sinful hearts, and, as the Bible says, 
' blot out, as a thick cloud, our transgressions; then 
that mysterious change which we call death, and 
which, it seems to me, might be compared to that de- 
veloping process )~ou have watched to-day, will develop and make 
' fixed ' to all eternity, the sin in our hearts. 

"You remember the verse ' Every work shall be made manifest ; for 
the day shall declare it.' So that is the little sermon I get out of this 
blurred plate, which I call ' a sin blotted out.' I hope these boys have 
repented of their sin, so that the clear Saviour could blot it out." — Ellen 
Quincy Vane, in the Sunday School Times. 



Hope From Peter's Experience.— "However great a sinner a man 
may be, he need never despair at any time in his life of the Divine 
mercy, for, as there is no tree so thorny, knotted, and gnarled but what 
it can be planed, polished, and rendered beautiful, so, in like manner, 
there is not a man in the world, however criminal, or however great a 
sinner he may be, but that God may convert him in order to adorn his 
soul with all the virtues and with the most signal graces." — Fra 
Egidio. 



Library. — On verse 22, see Farrar's Christ in Art, p. 168. 



Bibles. — There had been published in 1896, 262 millions of Bibles by 
the Bible societies alone, besides the vast numbers by private publishing 
houses. In the Bible house of the British and Foreign Bible Society 
there are Bibles in 340 languages and dialects. 



CLOSING WORDS. 

Long had my tears of penitence 

From sleepless eyes been falling ; 
Long had I heard the angel voice 

That through my soul kept calling : 
One night I watched the shapeless clouds 

That o'er my mind were rolling, 
Till the clock's slow and measured tones 

The hour of twelve were tolling. 



532 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXI : 20-25 

,; Then o'er the loved disciple's page 

Was I my vigil keeping: 
I read and mused, and read again, 

While all the world was sleeping: 
And as I mused, I felt a fire 

Within me gently glowing ; 
Passion sunk low as drooping gales 

At hush of eve stop blowing. 

" The clouds that o'er my spirit hung 

Gave sweet and gentle warning : 
They changed to white and purpling flakes 

As at the dawn of morning, 
And then looked through the countenance, 

Clothed in its sun -bright splendor, 
Of Him who o'er His saints of old 

Kept holy watch and tender. 

'•' His robe was white as flakes of snow 

When through the air descending ; 
I saw the clouds beneath Him melt, 

And rainbows o'er Him bending: — 
And then a voice, — no, not a voice, — 

A deep and calm revealing 
Came through me like a vesper-strain 

O'er tranquil waters stealing. 

" And ever since, that countenance 
Is on my pathway shining, 
A sun from out a higher sky, 

Whose light knows no declining, 
All day it falls upon my road, 

And keeps my feet from straying ; 
And when at night I lay me down 
I fall asleep while praying." 

— Edmund H. Sears, D. D. 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

A. B. C. of life 365 

iEschines ou the Crown 202 

" A palace built with graceful" 382 

"A raveled rainbow overhead" 475 

"A servant with this clause ", 371 

" A thing so fragile " 445 

Abandoned farm, Products of an ... . 430 

Abiding in Christ 416 

Absorbed and reflected 201 

Achelous and Hercules 220 

Acorns 56, 189 

Acrostic, A good 216 

Afflictions like a sculptor's blows. . . 

267, 312 

Agassiz, A pupil of 243 

Agitation not a disease 140 

Ahmed and Omar, (fable) 225 

Aim of life 34 

Alabaster boxes must be broken 338 

Alcibiades 375 

Alcyone 504 

Alexander, and his namesake 

Alexander the Great 40, 336 

Alhambra, Legend of the 215 

Alphabet, The 259 

Already 99 

Aluminum from clay 17 

Ames (Bishop), Answer to ignorant 

man 211 

" Among so many " 294 

Analogical argument for the Resur- 
rection 320 

"And a she-wolf " 305 

" And after, I saw " 364 

"And God knows, who sees" 318 

"And tell me how love " 244 

" And when a damp " 267 

"And when I'm to die" 347 

"And who saith I loved once" 359 

An epistle containing the strange 
medical experience of Karshish. . . 326 

Angel visitant 320 

Angel guidance 187 

Angels in the kitchen 369 

Animals in Noak's ark 72 

Animals, limitations of 76 

Anointing beforehand 338 

Answers to prayer 143 

Ant hills, the earth and Sirius 92 

Ants, white, and their work 336 

Ante mortem (poem) 339 



PAGE. 

Apes and the glow worm 165 

Apologue of St. John. A legend 3 

Apple seeds 81 

Arabic proverb 286 

Archbishop's Aim, The 241 

Archimedes' problem, 38 

Arctic nights depressing 270 

Ariosto' s fairy. . 494 

Anstides the Just 209 

Aristotle's fancy 11 

Arithmetic of God 180 

Art, an aid to Bible study 167 

Artist or artisan 372 

Artificial rose 424 

Ash barrel 1 84 

" As some rare perfume " 419 

"As those who heal" 107 

Asiatic narrowness , 252 

Assimilation, Law of 207 

Atheism, The owlet 350 

Atonement, The 96, 306 

Attracting to the truth 107 

Aurora, Guido's picture seen 22 

Avenger, The, illustrations 442 

Autobiographies of Nations 168 

Avoided grace and avoidable doom. . 163 

Backsliding 206 

Baptist church near Jaeob's well 125 

Bartholdi Statue of Liberty 273 

Basement of the soul * 13 

Bas relief in the church at Verona. . 146 

Bay, a part of the ocean 18 

Beatitudes, Christ's lesson books 247 

Be like the bird 329 

Bear killing flies 147 

Beauty and the beast 95 

Beecher, H. W., and the mob 228 

Beehunter's device 36 

Bellows and the fire 441 

Bells of Is 117 

" Bellua populus " 493 

" Below were men and horses " 256 

" Beneath the cross " 227 

Besetting sin a guardian angel 468 

Best things — where found 108 

Bethany, The familv at 331 

Bethesda, Pool of..' 136, 141 

" Be thou my star" 168 

Betraying Christ, Steps toward 479 

Bible Allusions, Tennyson 169 



534 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Bible, The, and the Reformation 259 

Bible, The, circulation of, 531 

Bible, The, clear, we dark 212 

Bible, The, Literary style of 164 

Bible, picturesque and poetic words. 166 

Bible study 165 

Bible treasures must be sought 160 

Biogenesis 83 

Bishop Ames' answer 211 

Bitter memories 339 

Black coal in the sunshine 251 

Blacksmith's shop, a picture 159 

Blank pages of the Bible 161 

Blind asylums need light 272 

Blind girl and her Bible 164 

Blind man and the elephant. 466 

Blind mouths 301 

Blindness, moral and physical 

263, 264, 285 

Blindness of seeing 277 

Blood of Christ 33, 505 

Blurred plates 530 

Booth (General) Supreme test 75 

Brahmin and the microscope 445 

Brakeman or engineer 221 

Branches of the Vine 410 

Bread of life 195 

Bread used iu the Lord's Supper 357 

Brendau, St., (legend) 481 

Briar becomes a rose 71 

Bridal customs of the Orient 100 

Bridge affected by sunshine 272 

Bridge representations of Christ 294 

Bridge of life, a vision 1E3 

Broad church and narrow church 47 1 

Broken branches, (fable) 410 

Broken leg, Different views of a 219 

' Brotherhoods, Helpful 35 

" Build thee more stately", 383 

Bunyan in prison 365 

Burden of wings 400 

Burning books but not doctrines 

283, 342 

"But all lost things " 320 

"But none of the ransomed ". .. 96, 303 

"But thee, but thee" 493 

" But whether on the scaffold " 503 

Button at the Columbian Exposi- 
tion 58 

Cadmus and the Dragon's teeth 308 

Caesar and Cassius 125 

Caiphas, Dante on 329 

Cairngorms 312 

Called byname 293 

Calling men by names 292 

Calvary described 501 

Canada thistles spread 222 

Canaries, Training of 200, 418 

Candles 157 

Cannon ball at Sebastapol 148 



PAGE. 

Capacity for God 76 

Captain to be trusted 382 

Carlyle and Irving 202 

Carpenter's son the conqueror 394 

Catacombs, contrasts and inscrip- 
tions 455 

Cathedral windows 16, 43 

Carlton's motto 277 

Chains forged to bind one's self . . . . 253 

Chamber for Jesus 356 

Chameleon, Different aspects of 467 

Character built, character changed.. 

84, 188 

Character, change of 84 

Charlemagne's spirit, (legend) 226 

Child and clothes 190 

Children 12,46, 266 

Chinaman's experience 390 

Choosing friends 435 

Choir invisible 343 

Chorus of odors 324 

Chorus your virtues 23 

Christ a teacher 396 

Christ and the Column, a picture.... 496 

Christ at the Last Supper 355 

Christ child, Halo about the 491 

Christ, For or against 221 

Christ makes 100 180 

Christ the mirror of God 21 

Christ the Vine 408 

" Christ washed the feet" 363 

Christian at the Cross 88, 237 

Christian life, Beginning of the 81 

Christianity and healing 134 

Christianity does not kill 324 

Christianity, Expansive power of . . . 122 
Christianity inexhaustible, a picture 225 
Christianity,strengthened by objec- 
tions 228 

Christianity, Testimonies to 390 

Christianity, Miracles and growth of 393 

Christians and tigers in India 284 

Christians, Sun-tested, roller- sifted. 242 

Christ's adaptation 294 

Christ's appearance after the Resur- 
rection 514 

Christ's face transfiguring 26 

Christ's fitness as a shepherd 290 

Christ's giving, and the world's 54 

Christ's school, teachers and scholars 243 

Chrysostom's comparison 72 

Church, Desecration of a 61 

Clay on the blind can's eyes 275 

Clearing before one's own house 62 

Closed minds 170 

Coal in the sunshine 257 

Cobwebbed church and cyclone 62 

College students and the Bible 167 

Color-blind 350 

Colors, Curious facts concerning. .. . 218 

Columbian Exposition and a button.. 58 



INDEX. 



535 



PAGE. 

Combe's childhood 339 

Come aud see 41 

Comforter, The 396 

Comforting the ships , 398 

Coming to Christ, Different ways 34, 44, 

Commonplace persons 175 

Companionship, Power of 417 

Condemnation 99 

Conductors of men 35 

Congenital blindness 282 

Conscience .... 451, 455 

Conservation and co-relatiou of force 470 

Constant hearer who never heard .... 13 

Constautine and Helena 324 

Consuelo's advice 127 

Contradictory sights 349 

Cookman's dying words 31 

Continuing contact of soul with soul, 419 

Contradictions to the eye 349 

Conversion, Psycholoav aud illustra- 
tions .7 70, 244 

Copviug Raphael's Transfiguration.. 395 

Codrus 229 

"Could we with iuk " 98, 229 

Covenant of salt Ill 

Co-workers with Christ 178 

Cracked bell restored 72 

Crassus 293 

Cream of the church 179 

Created 82 

Creation finished 1 47 

Criminals, Who are 235 

Critic, Apollo's reward to the 230 

Crown Prince at Sadowa 20 

Cross borne, not worshiped 147 

Crosses and telegraph poles 504 

Cross, Lessons from the 505 

Crowning with thorns, a picture. . . . 4. '7 

Crucifixion, The 502 

Culture through drudgery 248 

Cups 117 

Curse of self-seeking 346 

Cyrus calling soldiers by name 292 

Damascus tunnel 515 

Dante among his neighbors 32S 

Dante's light bearer 284 

Dante' s staircase 504 

Dark lanterns, a fable 237 

Darkness abolished by light 14 

Deafness, Peculiar kinds of 2S5, 491 

"Deal meekly, gently, with" 235 

" Dear friend, whose presence " 52 

Death from lack of light 271 

Death inevitable 190 

Death of Christians, a sleep 317 

Decay of the dead plant 421 

Defeats, Victories 504 

Degeneration and Conversion 67 

Delayed blessings office 313 

Despair up to hope 504 



PAGE. 

Diagrams Introduction 

Diamond aud the pebble 39 

Diamond field discovered 121 

Diamonds 443, 245 

Difficulties, Three ways of meeting.. 458 

Dinner customs in the East 376 

Discharged convicts 237 

Discipline of life 246 

Dispensation of the Spirit 398 

Divine and humau Service 18 

Dominic at the empty table, a 

picture 358 

Door, The as an emblem 300 

Doubters, Two kinds of 522 

Drawn by the Father . , 198 

Dream of Wild bees 346 

Drowning man's experience 450 

Drudgery a means of culture 248 

Drunkard's tragedy 54 

Drunkards, when hope for 290 

Diirer's pictures of the Passion 479 

Duty and doctrine 215 

Dyspepsia not essential to wealth. . . 147 
Dwelt among us .. 19 

"Each has his gift " 466 

Eagle and the rivers 364 

Eagle of St. John 1 

Ears out of focus 337 

"Earth's crammed with heaven "... 9 

Easter morning in Russia 514 

Eating for one s self 182 

Eating together, a sign 373 

Economy characteristic of manufac- 
turers 183 

Economy of nature and the arts 184 

Eiffel tower, view from 244 

Eiffel tower, safety of 422 

Electric current, Adhesion through.. 484 

Elevated railroad tested 127 

Elixir of joy 53 

Elizabeth and Essex 256 

Emperor moth 315 

Engine's response 133 

England affected by the Bible 168 

Enough of something 101 

Epistle containing strange medical 

experiences. . 326 

Epitaphs [by Jean IngelowJ 158 

Erinyes, The 100 

Error in truth's dress 220 

Errand boy picking up nails 348 

Esther divinely led 295 

Essex, Earl of, with queen's ring. . . . 256 

Eternal record, The 451 

Ether 8 

Eureka 38 

Evil, Constant fight against 468 

Exact time of Conversion 80 

Excommunication among the Jews. . 279 
Exercise, Christian 302 



536 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Expansive power of Christianity 122 

Experience an answer 42 

Experience of Dr. McKenzie 19 

Exporting religion 180 

Eve ointment in Arabian Nights 276 

Eyes and no eyes .... 350 

Eyes, Poisoned 351 

Family at Bethany 310 

Face in the Glass 444 

Faith and foot power 130 

Faith 131 

Faith working, faith saving.. ..89, 90, 142 
False accusation a proof of innocence 228 

Famine food 191, 193 

Farthing rushlight 158 

Fate of the Jews 493 

Father, The, and the Son 149 

"Fear cot to build thine" 40 

Fellowship 475 

Ferry boat or swimming 194 

Fiery cross, The 471 

Fiery serpent, Guido' s picture of 86 

Finding God in nature 57 

Finnev, Pres., Dedication prayers . . 64 

Fire of Coals, The 527 

Fire secretly sustained 151 

First disciples 32 

First miracle a type of all 52 

Fishers of men 525 

Fishes in the sea of Galilee 526 

Flag a sign 56 

Flaming bush, The 504 

Flavel's experience 190 

Flesh defined 82 

Flowers 9, 16 

Fly on cathedral pillar 150, 316 

Folks, not angels 324 

Food, The function of 190, 197 

Fools, black and white 229 

Footwashing ceremonies 361 

"For Brutus as you know " 374 

"For Christ, against Christ" 221 

"For no men or women" 444 

" For of all sad words " 493 

"Forth from his dark and lonely " . . 360 

Foundations essential 124 

Four oriental travelers 475 

Fountain of youth, (poem) 115, 462 

Fountain, (oriental legend) 227 

Fragrance of good deeds 333 

Franklin's plastered soil 1 24 

Free thought and religion 258 

Free will and free grace 1 99 

Freedom in what? 2f>4 

Freedom of the city 251 

Freedom to those who go forward . . 143 

Friends and friendship 384, 435 

Friendship, Test of 384 

Fronting the sun, (poem) 430 

Fruit offered by Satan 261 



PAGE. 

Fruit-bearing 415 

Fruits of the spirit 421 

Fruit of the vine 420 

Fulness of Christ 23 

Furies, The 100 

Galileo 258 

Game of chess, a painting 151 

Game of life learned 151 

Gareth and Lynette 515 

Gates of Paradise in fragments 464 

Gates on every side 34 

Gehazi and Judas 479 

Gems need polishing 25 

Gescrieben steht 6 

Giving life for the sheep 303 

Giving, The gain of 178 

Giving, Two methods 333 

Glacier stream and light beyond 516 

Glow-worm lamp 12 

Glass fragments 183 

God, conceptions of 98 

God so great, we so small 294 

" God's help is always sure" 315 

God's home and God's poor 341 

God gave 96 

God's love proved 92 

Gods of paganism 96, 323 

Going before of the good shepherd. . 296 

Gold dust 183 

"God's plans like lilies" 313 

God's presence in nature 36 

Golden calf, Voltaire's ignorance of, 286 

Golden vine of the Temple 407 

" Good and pure faces " 202 

Good medicine 21 6 

Good seen by God 98 

Grace 23, 24, 27 

Grace, John Cennick's 177 

Grape-vine of Hampton Court 422 

Gravitation, Paradoxes 7 

Great results from little things 38 

Growth by units 37 

Growth under pressure 460 

Guide must guide 388 

Guide needed, not charts 240 

Guidance of the Spirit 296, 452 

"Hail, friendship, since" 432 

Hale, Sir Matthew, on prayer 119 

Hampton Court, Grape-vine 422 

Handel's epitaph .... 221 

Handful of knowledge 85 

Handful without counting 333 

Hands off — Dr. Hale's story 366 

Harmony not identity 432 

Harmosan drinking before Omar 106 

" Hath borne his faculties so " 492 

Harvard Memorial hall 365 

" Heaven is not reached at a" 81 

" He has my lives, were they " 293 



INDEX. 



537 



PAGE. 

" He lay upon his dying" 31 

" He stood belore the Sanhedrim ' . . 230 

Headwaters of the Dee 3? 

" Health's common light" 324: 

Heart of fi re 443 

Heart power 94 

Heavenly foot-society 401 

' Heir of the self-same heritage" 235 

Helen Keller 277 

Help, the need of Bible 165 

Helplessness of sin ]39 

4 Henceforth my heart" Ill) 

Henry, Philip and his wife 336 

" Her eyes are homes" 332 

Herald in Alexandria 30 

Hermit's olive tree 314 

Hesperides, Garden of 47 

Hiero's Crown Problem 38 

"Himself from God he could not 

free" 437 

14 His life was gentle " 492 

Holmes, Dr., on drowning 450 

Holmes, Dr., on one's relations 127 

Holy Grail, The 357 

Holy Spirit, The 452 

Holy Spirit, The Guidance of 396 

Holy Spirit, The Influence of 84 

Home and the Church 35 

Home, Jesus and the 46 

Honey from bitter flowers 312 

Honor away from home 125 

" How much would I care " 339 

" How oft, we, careless " 340 

How to beat the French 485 

" Howe'r we trust" 450 

Humbert in the hospitals 371 

Hunger of the soul 191 

Huxley's wish 469 

Hydrostatics, a law of 1 13 

" I am the spirit that denies" 261 

" I believe in one priest" 466 

" I built my soul a " 345 

" I falter where I firmly " 337 

" I give you the end" . . 372 

" I know not where His" 188 

" I read on a porch of " 383 

" I sat alone with rny conscience" . . 451 

" I say, the acknowledgment " 464 

" I talked with you to-day "........ 34 

" I think that look," sonnet 488 

"I tremble when I think" 378 

I was blind, (poem) 280 

Ice in the crucible 341 

Ichneumon fly and the larva? 76 

" If earth another grace " 320 

" If only we strive" 4_!2 

"If so much loveliness " 3S3 

" If the dear Lord should send " 370 

Igdrasil, the ash tree 10 

Ignorant man answered . 211 



PAGE. 

"Illustrious Princess, had thy 

chance " 296 

Imitation of Christ, Better than 419 

Immanence of God 57 

" Immortal till my work is " 221 

Immortality 155 

Impressions cured by facts 219 

" In a fair and ancient city " 73 

" In necessaries " 465 

" In youth beside the lonely " 352 

Incarnation, The, not an after- 
thought 20 

Independence Bell 259 

India the answer 2^0 

Inebriates — when hope for 290 

Inexhaustible bread 199 

Infidelity, Blindness of 285 

Infidelity has no songs 430 

Influence 203 

Inky water 416 

Instrumentalities 37 

Instruments kept in order 213 

Intermittent flow of water 137 

Invisible procession 343 

Invisible things [declared] 23, 343 

Iphigenia, Sacrifice of 307 

Irish jaunting-car. 219 

Iron affected by electricity 419 

" Is thy cruse of comfort " 179 

Isaiah's conviction of sin 447 

Ithuriel' s spear . 491 

" It is the heart and not the brain " . 378 

" I talked with you to-day " 34 

" It is not the deed " 334 

Its on the inside 70 

J. C. on the grapes 421 

Jacob's well 104, 117 

Jesuit missionaries among Indians.. 446 

Jesus counts in our estimate 21 

Jesus' dying message 381 

Jesus knowing us by name 293 

Jesus in the home and social life 46 

48, 310 

Jesus, Personality of 21 

Jesus the Bread of Life 195 

Jesus the Teacher 106 

"Jesus, where'er thy people meet".. 119 

Jewels from the slums 75 

Jewels thrown away 489 

Job' s afflictions 267 

John the Apostle, Legends and em- 
blems 1, 377 

John the Baptist a voice, a witness. . 29 

John, King of England 480 

Joseph casting straws, picture 20 

Joseph escaping, a fancy 366 

Journeys, Incidental results of 103 

"Joy is duty and " 428 

Joy, Infinite possibilities of 429 

Judas 207, 363, 373, 480 

Judas as type 373 



538 



INDEX. 



TAGE. 

Judas contrasted with Peter 379 

Judge's decision as to ownership 305 

Judging by appearances 217 

Judgment, Picture gallery of 447 

Juftak 47 

Kaffirs calling their cattle 299 

Kaulbach's cartoon of the Reforma- 
tion 259 

Kept from evil, Two experiments. . . 468 

Kingsley's division of people 229 

Kingsley's secret of life 434 

Klein brothers 475 

Knocking, a picture, Mr. Moody's 

opinion 270 

Knowest not now 363 

Knowest not the time 352 

Knowledge comes by use 215 

Knowlenge of God 9 

Knowing the voice 305 

La Conscience, poem 448 

Labrador spar 321 

Ladder of graces 23 

Lamp in Terentia's tomb 49 

Lamp to one' s feet 1 64 

Last day of the feast 223 

Latimer and Ridley 158 

Lazarus, poem and legends. .310, 326, 327 

Leading of the Good Shepherd 295 

Leaning tower of Pisa 484 

*' Learn from yon Orient shell " 483 

Learning by heart 165 

Learning how to learn 213 

Leaven 35 

Let down your bucket 109 

" Let me count my treasures " 249 

" Let us be like a bird " 329 

Letters laid aside 242 

Letters, sealed aud open 366 

Liberty, Madame Roland on 258 

Liberty of God's children 230 

Life a beginning, a unit 

Life and Light 10 

Life an education and probation 174 

Life, different philosophies of 118 

Life breathed upon the 392 

Life, Parable and philosophy of 113 

"Life is full of broken measures" 114 

Life more abundantly 302 

Life requires food 200 

Light, a physical trinity 269 

Light a safeguard and power. ..269, 

h 270, 271 

Light bearers 158 

Light, Dispersion of 4 

Light of the World 258, 353 

Light seen, but not the man 158 

Light, Triumph of 11 

Light, Unity of 474 

Lincoln's advice 242 

Lion's feast and the swine 338 



PAGE. 

Little Dorrit's blessing 335 

Live by law 255 

" Live, vile and evil have" 254 

Living waters 113 

" Lo,"he heard the sudden " 429 

Loch Katrine and Thirlmere 369 

Logos The, and God, (Greek poem).. 4, 5 

Look up, a dream. 89 

"Long had my tears of penitence".. 531 
" Lord of himself, that heritage".. 250 

"Lord, with what care " 442 

Lord's Prayers, The two 461 

Lord's Supper, The, pictures 355 

Losing Sight, poem 352 

Lourdes, Grotto of 138 

Love, St. John's exhortation to 377 

"Love took up the harp " 217 

Loved once, (poem) 359 

Lovers and likers 435 

Love's delays 314 

Lovest thou Me? 528 

Lowell, J. R 390 

Lucretius' story of the manner 230 

Luther's books burned 283 

Luther's sign in the heavens 59 

Magic skin, fable 207 

Magnet, The wonderful 347 

"Make my heart a little" 226 

Mammoth Cave 388 

Man of sin 233 

Man Wanted (poem) 246 

Manna in the wilderness 194 

Mansions, Our heavenly 382 

Manual training 181 

Many folds, one flock 306 

Many meanings, all correct 69 

Map of India 280 

Maps, The two 391 

Mariner' s joy 230 

Marius and his executioner 481 

Marmion convicted of sin 442 

Marriage a type 46 

Marriage customs of the East 100 

Martha 331 

Matter, paradoxes of 7 

Marvelous love of God 92 

Mary Anu Morse legacies 443 

Mary of Bethany 311, 331 

Masterpiece, The 25 

"May I reach that" 335 

Meanness of sin 480 

Measuring Day 44S 

Medical missionaries 134 

Medicine bottles worshipped 120 

Memory, Survival of 450 

" Men are four," Arabic proverb 286 

Menagerie, Transfigured 74 

Menai bridge and the sunshine 272 

Mendelssohn at the organ 399 

Men wanted 246 



INDEX. 



539 



PAGE. 

Mephistopheles the destroyer 261 

Messiah, The — Ideas of 349 

Mighty sinners, mighty grace 30 

" Milton sits musing" 459 

Milton on his blindness, (poem). 264, 26S 

Mineral springs 138 

Mind's power over the bodv 123 

Mines 23, 162 

Miracles a slower process (fable). . . . 181 

Miracles as object lessons 131 

Miracles as signs 55 

Miracles of Christianity 393 

Miracles of nature and grace 55, 5S 

Mirror, Facing the 444, 449 

Mrs. Titbottom's spectacles .. 66 

Missionary's medicine bottles 120 

Missionaries or tigers 284 

Mob's mistake 228 

Mockeries 49S 

Momus, The god 49S 

Money changers 61 

Monk and the bird 429 

Monk and the sinner 234 

Montaigne on his readers 125 

Moody, D. L 37 

Moral color-blindness 217 

Moral miracles 59, 1 28 

Mountain guide 389 

Multiplication and nature 181 

Music not infinite 429 

My Neighbor, (poem) 233 

My Treasures, (poem) 249 

Mysterious in nature and religion. . . 9 

Mystery of the quarry 365 

" Nam veluti pueris " 107 

Name, change of 39 

Nansen making light 270 

Nansen's phonograph 165 

Napoleon taken at his word 133 

Nardoo unsatisfying 190 

National autobiographies 16S 

Nature's economy 184 

Near-sighted man 42 

Near-sighted spectacles 163 

Neesima 33 

Negro boy's experiences 14 

Never lost a man 482 

New birth and new life 69, 81 

New revelations to continuous 

study 26 

Nicodemus, coming by night 68 

Nicodemus the Hamlet of the New 

Testament 67 

No difference what one believes .... 213 

No sect in heaven 306 

"No shattered box" 333 

Not feel it 333 

" Not in entire forgetfulness" 17 

"Not she with treacherous" 518 

" Not the sun " 202 



PAGE. 

" Not when Bethesda's pool " 139 

Nothing to confess , 446 

"O but a man's reach" 365 

"O be my will so" ... 212 

" O for a man to rise in me" 77 

' ' O Galilee, sweet Galilee " 524 

" how many a glorious " 422 

" O Master, it is good" 447 

" O pure white stone" 158 

"O then the bliss of blisses" 384 

' ' O wad some power " 434 

" O where is the sea " ... 351 

Obelisk or well 225 

Object of life 156 

Objections and proofs 227 

" Of all sad words" 322 

Og's stone collar. 149 

" On distant shore " 357 

" On my bended knee " 267 

Once denied, thrice denied 486 

" Once to every man and nation "... 493 

One boy's experience 14 

One faith, many expressions 90 

One secretly sustained 151 

Opened letter 366 

Opinion of one's friends 127 

Orchard, The 43 

Orchestral unity 467 

Oriental fable 56 

Oriental marriage customs ... 100 

Orieutal monarch, Story of a 302 

Orpheus and Ulysses 468 

" Others shall sing the song". .. 33, 101 

" Our birth is but a sleep " 265 

" Our wills are ours " 212 

Outside power 441 

Overflowing fulness of Christ 22 

Ownership proved 305 

Owlet Atheism, (poem) 350 

Oxford coat of arms 273 

Oxygen 398 

Pagan deities without sympathy.... 323 

Pagan gods capricious 97 

Painted pump 77 

Painter, A converted 416 

Painter on the scaffold 128 

Painting, Judging of a 213 

Painting, Michael Angelo on 372 

Paintings, Reynolds' Study of 25 

Palace of Art 345 

Palace of Pilate 483 

Paper-mill transformation 179, 183 

Parable of life 113 

Paradoxes of science 7 

Parliament of religions, A new 42 

Partingtoniau attacks 283 

Paul's delayed blessings 314 

Paul's prison, Fountain in 318 

Paul's testimony to the Resurrection, 513 



540 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Peace, True and false 403, 405, 455 

Pearls or bread 191 

Peculiar literary test 167 

Penalty of uot bearing fruit 423 

Percentage of life 257 

Perennial springs 226 

Perfumes from strange sources 78 

Persian fable 344 

Persian prince, Teachers of a 243 

Personal influence 202 

Peter and Judas contrasted 380 

Peter, Simon named 530 

Peter's fall and restoration 487, 529 

Peter's restoration 530 

Peter, Questioning of 527 

Pharisees on the Sabbath law 144 

Phonograph, The Bible like the 165 

Photographing a star 470 

Physical trinity 8 

Physician in time of plague 30S 

Physicians and sickness in the East, 130 

Picking flaws , 279 

Picture gallery — a dream 449 

Picture versus description 20 

Pictures of the Crucifixion 49(5 

Pictures of the Lord's Supper 355 

Pictures of the Marriage at Can a 45 

Pictures of the Resurrection 513 

Pilate 489 

Pilatus, Mt 494 

Pilgrim Monument at Plymouth 259 

Pillar of fire and cloud 239 

Pillows of peace 406 

Pitt's influence 26 

Plague stayed in Marseilles 30S 

Plato's fable of heavenly spirit, 326, 370 

Plato's Republic 26, 46 

Pliny's famous letter 351 

Plumptre's poem on Lazarus 310 

Ponce de Leon's search 115 

Poisoned eyes 351 

Polished gems 25 

Poet's dream of peace 403 

Poor, Christ served in the 340 

Pool of Bethesda 136 

Porcupines, Religious 24 

Post-mortem kindness futile 338 

Power of good thoughts and people, 

26, 417 

Power of shepherding 290 

Power of the pulse 94 

Power of units 37 

Power through prophetic hope 40 

Prayer 132, 133, 315, 400, 455, 461 

Prayers sifted 315 

Prayer answered by duties 143 

Prayer, Power-room of 455 

Prejudice 108, 284 

Prejudice an extinguisher 284 

Premature announcement of death. . 325 
Premature answer, Ruin 315 



*»AGE. 

Preparation a witness 15 

Preparing the way 30 

Princess in Arabian Nights 266 

Prize fighter explaining conversion, 281 

Prisons and prisoners 237 

Privilege of obedience 81 

Proof of ownership 305 

Prophecy becomes history 222 

Prophetic hope a power 40 

Prophets without honor at home, 125, 210 

Pruning 70,312,414 

Psychology of conversion 70 

Punishment, Three objects of 236 

Purpose, crystallized character 70 

Quarries of Cape Ann 386 

Quarry, Mystery of the 365 

Race narrowness 252 

Rags 183 

Raleigh and his cloak 342 

Rapidity of motion tested 446 

Rapacini's daughter 417 

Ray of light, Power of 443, 270 

Reach hither thy finger 522 

Receiving Christ 17 

Recognition, Difficulty of 520 

Red Cloud's question 438 

Reforms previously opposed 210 

Refuse of a city, Value of 184 

Religion a doctrine (poem) 280 

Religious meetings, Cost of 341 

Religious porcupines 24 

Replacement the function of food. .'. 197 

Repose in Egypt — a picture 12 

Republics need agitation 140 

Re-shaped by Christ (poem) 73 

Rest, The Bible word 165 

Restingtimes 171 

Resurrection hopes 153 

Resurrection proofs 513 

Reward of believing 44 

Reward of learning 428^ 

Reward of suffering 460 

Reynolds' study of paintings 26 

" Ridge of the mountain wave" 187 

Ridicule 497 

Ridlev and Latimer, Bishops . . . 158 

Rifted flute (fable) 456 

Ring in an iron ball 161 

Rivalry 108 

Robber and the Apostle (legend) .... 2 

Robespierre 375 

Roentgen rays 66 

Roller-sifted Christians 242 

Room for improvement 422 

Roses, Gardener's treatment of 311 

Royal gift, A 97 

" Run, John, and work" 90 

Ruskin's denunciations 61 

Ruskin's knowledge of the Bible 163 



INDEX. 



541 



PAGE. 

Sabbath question 144, 148 

Sacramental cup in St. John's hand 

— emblem introduction 1 

Sacrifice, Spirit of 325 

" Saint Augustine, well hast ' 529 

Saints, Where to find 468, 48 

Saladin and the water 106 

Salamis, Battle of 395 

Samaritan religion 105 

Sanctification and sanctimoniousness 489 

Sanctification, Formulas for 469 

Satan burying seed (fable) 341 

Satan in the heart 360 

Savage and literature 150 

Savages and the camera 223 

Savages and the mirror 374 

Sceuted clay (fable) 417 

Sowing and reaping in Palestine 123 

Scholars in Christ's school 243 

Schoolmaster and shipmaster 215 

Schools and schooling of Christ 245 

Science and expression 281 

Scotchman and his wife at prayer. . . 132 

Scourging 495 

Sculptor's masterpiece 392 

Sealed and opened letter 366 

Seals, Oriental 193 

Searching the Scriptures 165 

Searchlight and the sun 439 

Secret of a beautiful life 88 

Sects and sectarianism 471, 474 

"See, far above the starry " 2 

Seeds and plants 82 

Seeing and hearing 13 

Seeing God 28 

Self-sacrifice in giving 332 

Self-seeking, Curse of 346 

Selfishness 207 

Sensational literature 231 

Serpent gnawing at a file 330 

Serpent in the wilderness, The 86 

Seven candlesticks of revelation 468 

Seven fears changed to joys 456 

Seven sleepers, Surprise of the 393 

Shadow of the cross, a picture 88 

Shakespeare's mind 216 

Sheep-naming 292 

Sheep following 291, 297 

Sherif, The Mohammedan 252 

Ship of humanity 121 

Ship sweetened 473 

Shepherd, The Good 289, 290 

Shepherding, Need and power of 289 

Shepherd's expedient, The 297 

Ship at the month of the Amazon. . . 109 

Ship of humanity 121 

Siege withstood 199 

Sight restored 274 

Silanus 349 

"Simon becomes Peter 39 

Sin 86, 264, 265, 441 



PAGE. 

Sin brings its own punishment 145 

Sin, Convincing of 441 

Sin, Slavery of, three fold 254 

Sincerity 43 

Sin, Sentinels of 253 

Sirens, Ulysses and Orpheus 431 

"Sleep is a death, O make" 316 

Slough of Despond not a divine insti- 
tution 84 

Snow-flakes 72 

"So from the heights" 169 

" So, I go on, not knowing " 188 

Social life, a tvpe 48 

Socrates 110, 126, 217 

Sojourner Truth s praver 174 

Solar look, The ... . .' 482 

Soldier's trusting, not knowing 221 

Solomon the Magnificent 443 

Solomon's staff 336 

Solon's law 485 

Son of God, son of man 153 

Sonnet by Matthew Arnold. 196 

Sorrow, Use of 128 

Soul, Greek ideas concerning the. . . 326 
Sound and light, What between .... 28 
Sound, Curious facts concerning . . . 218 

Sounds in the upper air 466 

Sowing and reaping.in Palestine 123 

" Soyez comme l'oiseau " 328 

Spectrum of love 93 

Spittle a remedy 273 

Spontaneous generation, an obsolete 

theory 10 

" Spotless in faith, in bosom bold" . 442 
Springs, Mineral and intermittent.. 137 

Spurgeon — missions 37 

Stagnation is not rest 405 

Standing water never pure 227 

Star of Bethlehem and Jacob's well, 

(legend) 107 

Stars not extinct by day 317 

Stations of the cross, pictures 500 

Statue and the marble 39 

Statue and the soul 376 

St. John and the robbers 2 

St. John and the two young men.. . 3 

Storms of life 187 

Stradivarius in the poem 401 

Stranger, Alarm at 300 

Submerged tenth, How to aid the. . . 75 

Success by defeat 33 

Success depends on timing things. . . 221 

Suggestive people ' 202 

Sun-tested Christians 242 

Sunday school teachers 179 

Sunlight of Jesus' love 271 

Sunlight, Power of 12 

Sun seen for first time 11 

Sun's effect on Menai bridge 272 

Sunset glories, Cause of 79 

Superscriptions, The three 506 



542 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

" Supra coelos dum conscendit " 2 

Swan and heron 80 

Sweeping out the Atlantic ocean. . . . 283 

Swine at the lion's feast 338 

Sympathy, Costly 323 

Tabernacled 19 

Tafelhahig 351 

Take a magnet 347 

" Take to thy cheerless soul" 430 

Taken at his word 133 

Tapestry weaving. 364 

Teacher's qualifications 243 

Teaching and healing 173 

Telegraph and telephone 133 

Telegraph poles and crosses 504 

Telling Jesus 50 

Temperance application 51 

Temple, The, a type 65 

Temple of honor and virtue 170 

Ten times one is ten societies 36 

Ten to strangers organization 35 

Tennyson and the Bible 169 

Test of Ithuriel's spear 491 

Tests a proof 128 

Testimony from reformatories 47 

Tested 247 

Tests and tested 95 

" Thus with somewhat of the seer" . 39 

" The blest are like the " 317 

The bright reflection, a picture 159 

The compass, (poem) 445 

"The cross for only a day" 346 

The crystal 493 

" The difference is as great " 100 

The dream of wild bees 346 

The fable of the clouds, (poem) 218 

"The face of Christ shone" 324 

" The faith of the head " 89 

" The feet of Judas " 363 

"The frail vessel thou hast" 224 

" The haud that rounded " 436 

" The healing of his seamless" 130 

"The hills, rock-ribbed " 250 

" The human species " 19 

"Their own defects" 234 

The little Bible 91 

" The little worries " 460 

The lark, (sonnet) 488 

" The man who once has" 327 

"The man's own firm conviction".. 326 
The meaning of the look, (sonnet) . . 488 
Themistocles railing men by name. . 293 

Thernistocles at Salamis 395 

The Moor's legacy 162 

"The new age stands " 135 

" The owlet,' Atheism " 350 

The repose in Egypt, a picture 12 

"The Saviour looked on Peter," 

(sonnet) 488 

The sleeping child, (poem) 80 



PAGE. 

" The soul of music " 80 

" The soul's dark cottage " 328 

"The strife is o' er " 

" The toil of dropping buckets " 224 

The unfailing cruse, poem 179 

The Word, poem, Latin and English 5 

"The world goes up and" 497 

" The world wants men " 246 

"Then came to old Ponce" 116 

" There is a tide " 268 

" There is life for a look " 89 

" There was a people once" 170 

" There's a day in spring" 120 

" They sin who tell us " 359 

" Think you the notes " 154 

Thirst 110, 510 

" This world is no blot ", 122 

Thomas, Doubts of ; legend of 522 

Thor's drinking horn 115 

"Thou shalt know him " 433 

" Though the cause of evil " 497 

Thorns burned 425 

Three classes of people 229 

Three days, The, How reckoned 512 

Three languages 508 

Three temples, The, legend 64 

Through Lazarus' glasses 326 

Thus with the year 264 

" Thy word is like a deep " 159 

" To blind old Milton's" 268 

"'Tis written in the beginning" .... 6 

Titbottom's spectacles 66 

" To mine eyes there rushes "..,... 329 

Tone-deafness, 285 

" Too often it haps that " 65 

Tragedy of a sinful life 54 

Transfiguration moments 447 

Traveler from the planet 190 

Transformations., 52, 72, 75, 78, 80 

Transmigration of souls 266 

Treasury, The 238 

Tree and vine, Nature of 410 

Tree of knowledge 452 

Tree of life 10,110, 503 

Trinity, The 8 

Triumph of light 14 

Troubled waters, Healing in 140 

Troubling of the Pool, (poem) 139 

Truth, freedom, by the 250 

Truth, The word 250 

Turner's answer 109 

" 'Twas August, and the fierce" 196 

" Two children once at eventide ". . . 218 

Two kings of Scotland 490 

Two methods of giving 115 

Two magnitudes 262 

Two philosophies of life 118 

Tyndale's Testament burned 343 

Unconscious of realities 265, 285 

I " Uude rubor vestris" 5\ 



INDEX. 



543 



PAGE. 

Unearned increase 55 

Unfailing springs, (legend) 227, 503 

Union of soul and bodv 18 

Unity, The true 423, 477 

Units, power of 37 

Unity, Christian 465 

Unloaded souls 402 

Values, Comparative 337-8 

Veil over the Word 160 

Veneerings, The 257, 492 

Verbum Dei, Deo Natum, poem 5 

Veronica, St., (legendj 500 

Vine, an emblem 408 

Vineyards in Kedron Valley 407 

Violin in the master's hand 152 

Violin, Unity of the 472 

Visible to God 449 

Vision and visions 267 

Vision of Sin, Tennyson's poem 256 

Vision of Wesley 306 

Vision of the future 155, 385 

Visions of righteousness, Power of. . 85 

Visions of youth 352 

Voice, Significance of the 298 

Volcanoes and internal tires 466 

Voltaire on the golden calf 286 

Voyage of Life, Angeli 187 

Wait and see 367 

Wandering Jew, The legend of 501 

Warming themselves by a burning 

house 223 

Washed, in whole and part 367 

Washing one another's feet 368 

Watch and the child 426 

Water 68, 106,112 

Water in Jacob's well 104 

" Water, water everywhere" 225 

" We are not worst " 480 

" We, in falling " 231 

"We may not know how" 379 

"We shape ourselves the joy " 154 

Weary in, not of 103 

Weaver, The 364 

Weathercock, Motto on a 91 

Weeping women of the East 321 



PAGE. 

Welcome in thirteen languages 310 

Wesley' s vision 306 

Whately and the reviewer 218 

" Whatever crazy sorrow " 151 

" When flits this cross". . 471 

"When of an able man " 43 

" Whence the redness" 51 

" Where went thou, brother " 325 

'• While God gives thee" 401 

White ants and their work 336 

Why Jesus used clay 275 

"Wild and fanciful the legend" 227 

Will not 142, 168 

Will of God, The 156 

Wills wanted 216 

Wind flower 457 

Wine made bv Jesus 51 

Winged life, The 463 

Wingless birds, (fable) 400 

Wings 457 

"With a love that" 433 

" With myrrh and with aloes" 519 

Without counting 333 

Witness, the idea of John's gospel, 

14, 15 

Witnesses, Array of 486 

Witnesses to Christ's works 158 

Witnessing for Christ 241 

Woman, a form of address . 50 

Woman under Christianity 509 

Woman at the sepulchre 518 

Wondrous high garden 44 

Word, The, (poem) 4, 5 

Word of God, Depth of the 161 

Word powerless on closed minds 169 

Works of God 147-8 

World, The 16 

" Ye stars are but the shining" 385 

" You know the jutting cliff " 251 

"You may break" 428 

" You may grind them both " 71 

Young man and St. John 3 

Youth, Fountain of 462 

Zambri and Sylvester 324 



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